


Crapshooter's Ballet

by reconquer



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-20
Updated: 2015-07-30
Packaged: 2018-03-24 22:27:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 22,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3786598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reconquer/pseuds/reconquer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Fuck you, I could get laid by any girl I want. I just didn’t want to.”</p><p>Amethyst is leaning over with a mischievous look in her eye before Jasper even finishes her sentence.</p><p>“Wanna make that a challenge?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Oveture

**Author's Note:**

> for vicky, my love <3

“Dude, dare me to down this bottle of Tabasco sauce?” Amethyst waves the bottle in Jasper’s face, fingers already twisting open the cap.

“You’ll throw up on the derby track again.” She responds, taking a gulp of her kale-banana smoothie and giving Amethyst a pointed look.

“Yeah…” Amethyst dejectedly screws the top back on. “I guess you’re right.”

She flops onto her back and stares at the bright sky. People bustle around them, eating and talking. There’s still thirty minutes left in their lunch break and Amethyst has eaten her entire lunch and most of Jasper’s—it’s whatever, Jasper owes her gas money anyway.  

“I should do it and throw up on your girlfriend.”

“I don’t have a girlfriend, Amethyst.”

“I thought you were dating Opal.” Amethyst sits up.

“Nah.” Jasper says gruffly, shaking her tumbler violently. “Didn’t work out.”

“Aww, poor Jasper couldn’t get laaaaaid.”

“Fuck you, I could get laid by any girl I want. I just didn’t want to.”

Amethyst is leaning over with a mischievous look in her eye before Jasper even finishes her sentence.

“Wanna make that a challenge?”

Jasper rolls her eyes. “A challenge like what?”

“You gotta sleep with a girl of my choosing by the end of this semester. If you don’t, you have to go onto the PA system and announce to the whole school that you’re a little bitch baby.” Jasper scowls violently.

“Except that I’m _not_ a little bitch baby.”

“Whatever, you’ll still have to tell everyone.”

Jasper grunts and throws a bunch of grass at Amethyst, who tries to catch it in her mouth.

“Okay, but _when_ I win, you have to eat salad for lunch every day for two weeks.”

Amethyst pulls a face and shivers in horror despite the late summer heat, but nods regardless. Jasper sticks out her hand and they shake on it.

“So, do you have a girl in mind?”

“Oh, yeah,” Amethyst says, waggling her eyebrows. “It’s this chick in my chem class. She’s my lab partner and she’s super gay. I think I saw her out here.” She cranes her neck and looks around the quad.

Jasper’s pretty sure she could get this done in a week. A month, tops.

Amethyst punches her arm and motions towards a short girl with glasses standing in the underpass. She sneezes into the sleeve of her flannel and almost drops her Nintendo DS. Her bangs flop in front of her eyes and she shoves them back, making her short hair go in a million different directions.

“Oh my God. Are you serious?”

Amethyst winks at her. “Good luck, bitch baby.”

Jasper’s starting to think this might take a little longer than a week.

 

It doesn’t take long for Jasper to find out the girl’s name. Ruby’s a good resource—she plays softball with Jasper in the spring, but she’s in a million clubs during the off-season, and her girlfriend is in even more.

“Peridot’s in drama with me,” she says as she ducks under people’s arms in the crowded hallway between classes. Ruby is seriously short, even with the two inches or so her afro gives her.

“You’re in drama?” Jasper asks.

“Sapphire said the tech crew needed help, and you know I can’t say no to her,” Ruby responds.

“What’s she like?”

“She’s kind of a douchebag, to be honest. She seems good at her job though.” Ruby peers up at Jasper. “Why are you asking?”

Jasper shrugs. “No reason. Just curious.”

“If you’re so curious, come to building today,” Ruby says as she starts veering off towards a nearby staircase.  “You’re big and strong, and I’m sure Rose would appreciate it! Get there by 2:30 or don’t come at all!” She disappears up a staircase, swallowed by the crowd. Jasper huffs, shifting her backpack from shoulder to shoulder. Drama club. Gah. 

 

Jasper shows up at 2:45 with Starbucks. Pearl, Amethyst’s sister (or something like that, Jasper’s still not really sure why they live together or if they’re even really related), is sitting at the front of house shuffling through some papers in a huge binder.

“Hey, cutie,” Jasper says as she plops down into the plush seat next to her. Pearl rolls her eyes but otherwise doesn’t pause what she’s doing.

“What do you want, Jasper?”

“Ruby mentioned that you guys needed some help building, and I knew you’d be here and that you love looking at my ass, so—”

“I would really appreciate it if you stopped messing with me. It’s really rude.” Pearl cuts her off, finally looking up from her paperwork. “If you want to help, go ask Peridot or Ruby for a job. I have to go run rehearsal now.” She closes the binder and storms out of the auditorium. Jasper feels bad for, like, a second—Pearl works hard, and she’s kind of a mess, but it’s funny watching her face go almost as red as her hair.

“Yo, Jasper!” Ruby calls from the stage. She’s fiddling with a measuring tape and her whole front is completely covered in sawdust. A beanpole of a girl is with her holding what Jasper thinks must be twenty pieces of two-by. She looks bored out of her mind. “You showed up!”

“Sure did,” Jasper says, putting her coffee down and going up to the edge of the stage. “Pearl told me to ask you if you needed help?”

“Me and Lapis are just dropping off some cuts and going back to the shop, but Peridot needs another pair of hands, I think,” Ruby says, gesturing towards the ladder to her left. Peridot is sitting on the very top, straddling the A-frame. A chubby boy about ten or eleven is standing on the bottom rung with a cardboard box. Jasper hoists herself onto the stage and makes her way over.

“Hey! I’m Jasper. Ruby said you needed some help!” She calls up. Peridot grunts and fiddles with some tape and a small metal frame.

“Steven, can you hand me R44? It should be pink.”

The boy, Steven, nods with determination and looks through the box for a few seconds. He pulls out a pink transparent square of plastic and stretches his arm towards Peridot.

“You gotta climb a little higher, buddy,” she says.

“Here, I got it,” Jasper says, intercepting the plastic from Steven’s pudgy hand. She doesn’t even have to get on the ladder to hand it up to Peridot. Peridot stares for a couple of seconds before leaning down and taking it.

“So. Who are you?” She asks as she slides the plastic between the frames. She reaches up and slips the frame into the theatrical light above her head.

“I just said that I’m Jasper.”

“Oh. I wasn’t listening. Can you help me move the ladder downstage?” She swings both of her legs to one side and climbs to the bottom. Even though Peridot is looking up at Jasper now, nothing about her demeanor changes. Jasper nods and goes to the other leg. They both lift up and Jasper starts heading towards the back wall, but Peridot jerks her in the other direction.

“Downstage is this way.”

“Right, I knew that.”

“No, you didn’t.” Peridot scowls. “Steven, you can put the gels back in your mom’s office for now. I have to hang the first electric and the lights are pretty heavy, so why don’t you see if she needs any help with the costumes? Me and Jaden can do this part.”

“Yes, ma’am!” The kid gives a mock salute and scurries across the stage and disappears into the wings. Peridot turns her focus back to Jasper.

“There’s a bunch of Source Fours sitting in the house right now. Help me bring them up to the stage and then you’re gonna have to hand them up to me.” She’s already jumped off the edge of the stage and Jasper trails close behind her. There’s a cluster of the same type of light that Peridot had put the “gel” into. They’re black and have a curved C-shaped clamp at the ends and come up to a little below her knee. Peridot picks up four, two in each hand, and starts heading back.

“We’re probably gonna need to make more than one trip,” she calls as she lifts herself onstage.

“My name’s Jasper, not Jaden,” Jasper responds, trying not to snap. 

 She picks up four the same way she saw Peridot do it and, shit, they’re way heavier than they look and the metal clamp is digging into her palm in the most uncomfortable way possible. “You’re pretty strong for a runt, by the way.”

“So they say,” Peridot responds from behind her, already having lapped her with four more Source Fours in her hands.

Jasper considers herself strong—she plays three sports, two of which are contact, and she’s pretty proud of how her biceps have been shaping up in the past year—but it takes all her strength not to topple over when she tries to imitate the way Peridot stepped with one foot to get onstage.

“Smooth,” Peridot comments as she starts heading back to get the last couple of lights.

“Oh, fuck off,” Jasper growls. Peridot raises her eyebrows and smirks and Jasper fights off the urge to swing one of the lights into her smug face.

“Jasper, why are you here?” She asks, stepping close enough to Jasper that she can smell the Mountain Dew she probably drank for lunch. _So_ not attractive.

“Ruby said that you guys needed help, so I—”

“No, seriously. Why are you here?”

“I-I needed an art extracurricular for my college apps.” Peridot narrows her eyes and kind of deflates.

“Great. You’re just like Lapis. Let’s just do this.”

Talking to Peridot is like pulling teeth. Her responses are short and disinterested and Jasper’s too irritated to even put on her charm.

“So, what show are you guys putting on?” She asks as she hoists a light up to Peridot.

“Guys and Dolls.”

“Oh, cool. What do you like to do?”

“I dunno. I play video games sometimes.”

“Uh, what’s your favorite subject in school?”

“Don’t have one.”

After what seemed like Jasper’s entire lifetime, they’ve finally hung the entire first electric and exhausted just about every small talk topic known to man.

“Well, we’re done for the day,” Peridot says as they fold the ladder. “And crew’s over now anyway. If you come tomorrow, I’ll be dropping color and maybe focusing some stuff. Oh, and make sure you stop by Rose’s office sometime and tell her who you are so you get in the playbill.”

Jasper just nods and watches Peridot shrug on her flannel and head out of the auditorium. Amethyst is picking Pearl up from rehearsal in fifteen minutes, so she figures she may as well catch a ride to the derby with her. She sits in the front of the school and waits.

Jasper needs a game plan. Peridot’s honestly pretty cute, in a geeky way, but her personality is just so…abrasive.  She doesn’t get flustered like most girls do when she flirts with them, and she seems pretty absorbed in her own little world. Plus she seems kind of gross.

She groans. She’s _really_ gonna have to become a drama kid. And Amethyst is gonna tease her about it endlessly, even though Pearl is the vice president of drama club or something and she’s the reason Jasper’s in this mess in the first place.

God, she can’t wait to beat the shit out of her.

But not until she wins the bet. 


	2. Runyonland

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I bet Jasper that she couldn’t sleep with Peridot by the end of the semester,” Amethyst shrugs. Pearl looks bewildered.
> 
> “Peridot? Why her?” Pearl’s voice is starting to do that thing where it gets so shrill that dogs come running. Jasper would almost rather listen to Amethyst’s horrible music.
> 
> “Because it would’ve been too easy if it was you,” Amethyst replies, cackling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> @kiana and vicky: here's chapter 2 you fucking animals
> 
> disclaimer: pearl's my favorite character sorry i'm so mean to her :(

The ice stings against Jasper’s swollen lip, but she knows from experience that if she takes it off, it’ll hurt more. She wiped out, like, ten times last night at derby practice and her whole body hurts.  

“Dude, why do you still have an ice pack?” Amethyst asks as Jasper climbs into her ’95 Ford Thunderbird. It’s a piece of shit, but Amethyst worked hard to get it and it gets them around fine. Pearl is in the backseat with headphones in her ears and her face buried in a book.

“I dun’ wanna ge’ a swoll’n lih,” Jasper mumbles around the ice. Amethyst yanks the car into drive and speeds down Jasper’s residential street.

“Whaaaaaat, you worried about what Peri’s gonna think?”

“How are you so awake right now?” Jasper grimaces and turns down Amethyst’s discordant rap music.

“Making you uncomfortable is the reason I get up in the morning,” she grins. “Besides, maybe Peridot’s into that sorta thing. You never know.” Jasper rolls her eyes and smacks her on the arm, causing the car to veer. Pearl grumbles in the backseat and kicks Jasper’s seat _hard_ (how can such skinny chicken legs have so much strength?).

“Wanna get food before practice tonight?”

“I can’t, I have to go to drama club, thanks to _you_.” 

“Wait,” Pearl scoots to the middle seat to lean between the front seats, one earbud twisted in her long fingers. “You’re coming again? And why is it Amethyst’s fault?”

“I just wanna see your pretty face more often,” Jasper smirks, hoping that flusters her enough to shut her up. She tinges pink under her freckles but otherwise doesn’t seem that put off.

“There’s no way you’re coming _just_ to mess with me,” she shoots back, crossing her arms indignantly. “You already do that enough at my own house. Tell me the real reason. I deserve to know.”

“I bet Jasper that she couldn’t sleep with Peridot by the end of the semester,” Amethyst shrugs. Pearl looks bewildered.

“Peridot? Why her?” Pearl’s voice is starting to do that thing where it gets so shrill that dogs come running. Jasper would almost rather listen to Amethyst’s horrible music.

“Because it would’ve been too easy if it was _you_ ,” Amethyst replies, cackling.

“Well…” Pearl scowls and slouches back into her seat a little. “What does Jasper think?”

“Jasper loves the idea,” Jasper responds, twisting her torso around to fully face Pearl and give her the toothiest grin she can pull out at 7:15 AM. “You know I love a challenge, don’t you, Pearl?”

Pearl swallows the lump in her throat and nervously rakes her fingers through her short hair. Jasper figures she finally got the dweeb to shut up when she slides back into her original seat and takes sudden interest in studying her fingernails.

“But you can’t tell anyone,” Jasper tacks on hurriedly. “That would kind of ruin it, y’know?”

“Yeah. Right.”

 

The school day drags.  Jasper gets paired with Ronaldo in chem and he won’t shut up about how the worm they were dissecting is actually an alien spy or something, and she almost gets busted by Mahaswaren for sleeping during his class. All she wants to do is go home and take a fucking nap. Who the fuck needs trig, anyway?

Jasper bolts out of last period the second the bell sounds and starts autopiloting towards the student lot when she feels tapping on her arm.

“Hey! Earth to Jasper!” The girl’s eyes, mostly hidden by long blonde bangs, stare up at her with a vague sense of concern. “I’ve been calling your name for a few minutes now.”

“Sorry, Sapphire,” Jasper mutters.

“Ruby said you came to building yesterday! Are you coming again today?” Jasper nods and a smile lights up Sapphire’s pretty face. “I’ll introduce you to Rose then, she’ll be so excited.”

“Who is Rose, exactly?” Jasper asks as they descend the stairs to the first floor.

“She’s the drama club supervisor. She’s also an art teacher, but non-drama kids usually call her Mrs. Quartz. She’s awesome, you’ll love her!”

They enter the auditorium through a side door that Jasper’s never even noticed before. It comes out in one of the wings and Sapphire stops at the open door almost immediately inside. She pokes her head in and Jasper can hear her conversing with someone. A woman even taller than Jasper comes out of the office.

“Hello!” She sticks her hand out and Jasper tentatively shakes it. She’s got huge, curly hair and Jasper is still intimidated by the fact that she’s, like, towering over her.  “I’m Rose Quartz-Universe, but you can just call me Rose.”

“Uh, ok.”

“Sapphire says you’re interested in helping out the tech crew?” Jasper nods. “Well, we don’t have any more positions for actually running the show, but Steven told me you were a big help to Peridot yesterday! Would you like to continue helping her with electrics?”

“Yeah, totally,” she responds. Rose clasps her hands together and smiles.

“Oh, I’m so excited that you decided to join drama! Why don’t we introduce you to the rest of the club?” She ushers Jasper onstage.

Apparently Jasper underestimated the size of the drama club, because there’s about fifty people sitting in the house. Some of them are talking and others are eating, and Jasper can see Pearl sitting off to the side with her laptop and a coffee. Jasper’s not sure if she’s ever seen Pearl ingest anything _other_ than coffee, which probably explains why her hands are always shaking slightly.

“Can I have everyone’s attention?” Rose calls. The chatter settles down and Jasper can feel all fifty-odd pairs of eyes on her. She’s used to people watching her—she’s been playing competitive sports practically since she could walk—but being the sole center of attention is nerve-wracking, to say the least.

“Everyone, this is Jasper! Jasper, this is the cast of Guys and Dolls, I’m sure you’ll learn their names very soon. Oh—“ Rose’s smile widens. “Why don’t we play a name game?”

“Rose, rehearsal starts in ten minutes,” Pearl whines. “Besides, I think Jasper’s a little too old for name games.”

“Well, at least let me go around and introduce her to everyone!”

“Fine,” she huffs. “But if we start late, I’m putting it in the rehearsal report.”

Jasper doesn’t remember a single name. Rose retreats to her office after much prodding from Pearl, who insists that, even though rehearsal technically starts in two minutes, “five minutes is on time and on time is late.”

Even with Rose and most of the cast gone, Pearl’s still shooing some stragglers out of the auditorium and Jasper still hasn’t seen any of the crew.

“Hey,” Jasper says, approaching Pearl. Pearl avoids eye contact. “Do you know what time crew starts?”  
“It starts the same time as rehearsal, but they’re never early,” she says. She’s still waving her hands at a group of around ten freshmen who are packing up as slowly as possible. She makes a low noise under her breath as some freshman with huge gauges in his ears and both sides of his head shaved literally stares Pearl down and packs up in slow motion.

“Lars, I swear to God,” she grumbles.

Lars smirks and keeps doing it. The short blonde next to him socks him in the arm.

“You’re doin’ a good job,” Jasper says. Pearl finally looks at her.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Jasper gives her a lopsided smile. “Plus your butt looks cute today.”

Jasper pinches her ass through her skinny jeans and Pearl squawks, then quickly clamps her hand over her mouth. Lars busts out laughing and the blonde looks torn between being concerned and amused.

Pearl sends Jasper a downright poisonous glare and storms out, leaving the freshmen behind. Lars is still laughing and sliding down into his seat.

“Come on, Lars!” the blonde says, “Stop goofing around, we’re gonna make her even more mad!”

“Calm down, Sadie,” he says, still shaking. “She’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, Sadie, what’s she gonna do?” The voice comes from behind Jasper and she almost jumps. She whirls around to see Peridot, wearing a shit-eating grin and twirling a C-wrench in her hand.

“Jesus, have you been standing there the whole time?”

“Pretty much,” she shrugs. “So you and Pearl, huh? I always knew she was gay, even if she won’t say it.”

“No. No. Fuck no,” Jasper protests. “She’s my best friend’s sister. She’s just really easy to fuck with.”

Peridot laughs. Her voice is already high, so her laugh comes out closer to a giggle. It’s the first time Jasper’s seen Peridot smile.

Jasper realizes that she’s staring when the smile turns back into a smirk and she says, “So, are we dropping color or what?” Jasper blinks.

“Yeah. Sorry, I haven’t had enough coffee today.”

Peridot scoffs. “Yeah, tell me about it.”

Peridot leads her to the dimmer room to help her get more gels. Jasper thinks about how easy it would be to pin her up against the wall in this tiny enclosed space, but she’s pretty sure she’d get rejected. Hard. She’s going to have to wait a little bit longer.

Jasper hates waiting. 


	3. Fugue for Tinhorns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amethyst is messy. She’s intense and kind of rough and sloppy and she uses her teeth too much and her hair always gets everywhere, but it’s like. It’s fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun story: so i'm a stage manager irl and i was working a dance show with multiple dance companies, one of which was called peridance. i had to call them up to the stage and i absolutely called them peridot by accident and had to correct myself. im in too deep
> 
> anyway the rating has crept up because of The Sex. also, regarding ages, all the mains are 18 or 19!

The Purple Pumas get wrecked in the game tonight. Barely five seconds after Amethyst went in as jammer she got an elbow to the nose and went down pretty hard. The bitch didn’t even get a penalty even though, in Amethyst’s words, that move was “fucking illegal.” Then she punched the girl in the face and their coach pulled her out for the game.

Amethyst storms past Pearl when they get back to her little apartment and drags Jasper to her room. She immediately slams her up against the door and everything is Amethyst’s teeth sinking into her bottom lip and hands twisting under her sports bra. Amethyst roughly shoves her onto the bed and Jasper tries to stifle her moan when she starts biting at her neck and shoves her knee into her crotch. 

Amethyst is messy. She’s intense and kind of rough and sloppy and she uses her teeth too much and her hair always gets everywhere, but it’s like. It’s fine. Sex isn’t something Amethyst holds in very high esteem, and romance seems to gross her out. Casual sex is kind of her thing, and Jasper doesn’t mind being roughhoused once in a while.  

Amethyst yanks Jasper’s shorts and tights down in one motion and shoves into her before she even gets the chance to get her shorts below her knees. Jasper hisses and kicks out.

“Fuck! Amethyst, can you wait, like, one second—” Jasper doesn’t even have time to finish her sentence because Amethyst’s fingernails are leaving scratches along her calves and her tongue is on her the second she frees her left leg. Jasper gasps loudly and shoves her face into the nearest pillow so Pearl won’t hear her.

She comes like that and Amethyst smirks at her from between her legs as she catches her breath.

“Too much?” Jasper rolls her eyes and sits up, grabbing Amethyst’s tits through her shirt. She can feel Amethyst grinning against her mouth and laughs when Jasper flips her onto her back.

Amethyst is fucking loud and Jasper feels bad for anyone in the near vicinity. They lie there for a while, breathless and kind of sweaty, still partially clothed. Jasper can tell that Amethyst is starting to fade. She may as well stay the night.

“Gonna brush my teeth,” she mutters. Amethyst makes a sleepy noise of acknowledgement and rolls over onto her side when Jasper gets up.

The harsh bathroom light burns her eyes and she turns to the mirror to survey the damage. Her hair is a knotted, gross disaster, and her side shave needs a touch-up. Her busted lip from a few weeks ago is healing okay, but she notices a ghost of a bruise near her cheekbone. There’s a purple splotch near her collarbone courtesy of Amethyst. She’s gonna have to hide that from Peridot.

Peridot.

They’d finally started warming up to each other—spending every afternoon together does that. She’s still blunt, bordering on rude, but she opens up about herself more often. Jasper knows that she really likes playing video games and that she pretty much always has a bottle of Mountain Dew on her. She likes computers and math, and she can hold two Source Fours above her head for a good amount of time. Jasper honestly likes getting to know her.

When she gets back, Amethyst’s chest is rising and falling in a slow, rhythmic pattern. She gets into bed and bare, stubbly legs rub up against her own. She grabs her phone from the bedside table and shoots her mom a text to let her know she’s not coming home. Not that she ever comes home after derby games. She’s not even sure her mom would notice, or if her mom is even home herself.

She works a lot.

Jasper flops down and throws her arm across Amethyst’s midsection. She grumbles in her sleep and unconsciously spoons into Jasper. The girl sleeps like a rock.

 

Jasper’s not afraid of heights or anything, but being thirty feet above the house is making her feel a little queasy. She’d never admit it, though, especially when Peridot’s entire torso is casually leaning out of the catwalk. Jasper’s got a death grip on her belt as she tinkers with the frontlights. This is so dangerous, it’s so fucking dangerous Jasper can’t even believe—

“Yo, can you hand me the frame with R2?”  Jasper’s startled out of her own panicking and fumbles with one hand to get the frame. Peridot reaches her arm back without even looking as Jasper places the frame into her hand. “Are you okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Peridot drops the color and retreats back into the catwalk, immediately wiping her grease-stained hands on her jeans.

“I can hear you breathing from out there. Also, you were kinda grabbing my underwear with my belt.” She shrugs and pushes her glasses back up her nose. “I can tell when people are nervous. Are you afraid of heights?”

“No way,” Jasper says, anxiously running her hand along the buzzed part of her head. “I do way more dangerous shit than this all the time.”

“Yeah?” Peridot scoffs. “Like what?”

“Well, I play roller derby, for one.”

“Is that why you’re covered in bruises all the time?”

“Pretty much.”

“So you’re basically a huge version Ellen Page.” Jasper huffs and scoots next to Peridot to sit against the side wall of the catwalk.

“No, man, that movie is seriously inaccurate,” she starts. “There’s so many illegal moves, and the league would never let anyone skate on a track that fucked up, and—what?” Peridot’s got this weird little smile on her face and she’s fiddling with her rings like she does when she gets particularly excited about explaining cabling or something.

“Nothing,” she replies. “It’s just nice to finally hear you talk about yourself.”

Jasper frowns. “What do you mean?”

“I feel like you’re the one always asking me questions, but we’ve been on this show together for weeks and I feel like I barely know anything about you. It’s cool to listen to you talk about shit that you like to do, you know?” It’s pretty dark in the catwalk, but Jasper swears Peridot’s cheeks get a little darker.

“I was just trying to get to know you, I guess,” she says, a little gruffer than she meant it to be.

“Well, maybe I want to return the favor,” Peridot retorts, still smiling. Jasper smiles back.

Peridot reaches for the rest of the gel frames and shuffles them in her hands.

“So are we gonna finish the frontlights, or are you too scared?”

“Fuck off, I am not!” Jasper grabs the frames from Peridot’s hands and she laughs and crawls over to the next light. Jasper’s hand is on her belt in a heartbeat, careful to only grab one layer this time. She knows Peridot won’t fall, but still.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this is kinda short im a busy lady


	4. Follow the Fold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last thing Jasper expected to find at 10 PM on a Sunday was Peridot standing at her doorstep looking sheepish as hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's finals week and im writing this fic i literally hate myself so much
> 
> TW for drugs

The last thing Jasper expected to find at 10 PM on a Sunday was Peridot standing at her doorstep looking sheepish as hell.  Her hands are jammed in her pockets and her shoulders practically scrunch up to her ears when Jasper opens the door.

“Uh, is this 39 Fox Lane?”

“…Yeah?” Peridot’s eyes narrow.

“What are you doing here?”

“I live here?”

“Oh.” Peridot’s shoulders drop. “Well, do you know where Amethyst is? I, uh, have something for her.”

“She’s inside. Come in, I guess?”

The door slams behind them and she kicks off her Converse immediately. Peridot follows Jasper to her room where Amethyst is hanging off her bed, fiddling with her phone.

“Oh, hey, Peridot.”

“What’s the deal?” Peridot puts her hands on her hips. “Why’d you send me to Jasper’s house for this? I felt like neighborhood watch was breathing down my neck.”

“Ummm, cuz that’s where I _am_ right now? Obviously.” Peridot rolls her eyes and grabs a plastic baggie from her back pocket, tossing it at the bed. Amethyst reaches for her wallet from her bag on the floor.

“Wait. Wait. Wait a second.” They both freeze where they are, Amethyst almost completely upside-down and Peridot fidgeting her toes against the carpet. “Amethyst, is Peridot your _dealer_?”

“If that’s what you wanna call it, sure,” she grins and hoists herself into a sitting position, rifling through her cash. “Where’dya think I get my weed from?”

“It’s kind of a lowkey thing. Don’t go around telling people about it,” Peridot adds.

“I didn’t even know you smoked,” Jasper mutters under her breath, incredulous. Peridot snorts.

“’Course I do. Why do you think the catwalk smells like that?” Peridot counts the money and shoves it into her pocket. “Anyway, I guess I’ll see you guys later.”

Peridot turns on her heel to walk out of the room and Amethyst seems to be trying to communicate with Jasper through eyebrow movements.

“Woah, wait a sec,” Jasper says, putting her hand on Peridot’s shoulder so she can’t leave. “Why don’t you, uh, stay and hang with us? We were gonna smoke this right now anyway.”

“Are you being serious?”

“Sure! We’re friends, right?” Amethyst is making an obscene gesture behind Peridot and Jasper resists the urge to go over there and break her fingers.

“Alright,” she shrugs and flops down on the bed next to Amethyst, who’s already searching through her bag for her bowl.

“Yo, you got a lighter?”

“Uh-huh.” She pulls a small lighter from the breast pocket of her flannel and hands it to Amethyst. She inspects it for a second before she starts cackling, falling back to lie down on the bed. Jasper leans back from the window over her bed that she was opening to see.

“Dude, why do you have a Duck Dynasty lighter?”

“I don’t even know, man. I found it at the bottom of my backpack last week.” Amethyst is still laughing, curled in the fetal position. Peridot packs the bowl for her and moves to sit next to Jasper on the bed so that they’re sitting in a triangle. She holds the bowl out to Jasper.

“Honors?” Jasper puts the end of the bowl to her mouth and Peridot lights it for her. Amethyst makes kissy noises from her side. “First one to cough is a fucking casual.”

Jasper’s lungs are burning before the words even leave Peridot’s mouth. She blows out about half the smoke before hacking out the rest. Peridot smirks and takes the bowl out of Jasper’s hand, taking a smooth hit. Amethyst howls with laughter.

“Fuck—you—guys,” Jasper manages between coughs. Amethyst blows smoke in her face and Peridot giggles behind her hand. Jasper kicks in Amethyst’s general direction.

The three of them kill off the bowl pretty quick and pack it again. The room is hazy and Jasper absentmindedly remembers that she should’ve put her fan in the window _before_ they started smoking, but it’s whatever. Amethyst is settled between Jasper’s legs and Jasper’s got her arm slung over Peridot’s shoulders. She’d shoved her glasses up, pushing her bangs back, and her face is resting on Jasper’s chest. She feels like she’s in some weird, off-beat indie movie for a split second.

“Dude,” Peridot says in almost a whisper. She’s repeatedly tapping on her rings, making a clicking noise every time her fingernails hit the metal.  “Have you ever noticed that, like, everyone we know is named after a rock?” 

Amethyst and Jasper stare at her in shock.

“I don’t think pearls are rocks,” Amethyst counters.

“Yeah, but it’s, like, a gemstone, right?”

“But they’re like…nasty oyster guts or something,” Jasper says.

Peridot starts laughing into Jasper’s chest and Amethyst snickers. They giggle on-and-off for a while before Amethyst starts getting squirmy.

“I’m hungry. Are you guys not hungry?” She sits up suddenly and faces the two of them.

“I could eat,” Peridot mutters, muffled by Jasper’s tank top. “Like, I’d be into burritos right now.”

“Amethyst, take us to that really good bodega near your place,” Jasper says.

“No way, I can’t walk in there high! The lady who owns it has known me my whole life,” she exclaims. “I don’t even want real Mexican food. Let’s go to Taco Bell.”

“Yesssss,” Peridot breaths. She climbs over Jasper to get off the bed and jingles her keys in general direction of the other two. “I can drive.”

The mid-October chill snakes its way down Jasper’s tank the second they step outside. She shivers and zippers up her hoodie. Amethyst climbs in the back seat of Peridot’s Sedan, winking at Jasper as she shuts the door. She gets in the passenger seat as Peridot starts the car.

“I’m just taking a right at the end of this street to get on the main road, right?” Peridot asks as she pulls away.

“Yep,” Jasper responds. She puts her feet up on the dash and Peridot immediately swats them down.

“Don’t get my car dirty, man. I gotta keep it clean.”

Jasper snorts. “Why?”

“I just gotta.”

“You’re weird.”

Peridot smirks and shrugs. Jasper spends the rest of the ride scrolling through Peridot’s iPod, but she doesn’t recognize any of the artists and never ends up choosing anything. The town is pretty quiet this time of night and they pretty much cruise the rest of the way to Taco Bell. She thinks Amethyst fell asleep on the way, but she springs out of the car the moment they’re parked.

“God, I want one of those quesorito things,” Amethyst says as they walk through the door. The place is deserted other than the cashiers and some crusty-looking trucker in the corner eating nachos. “What do you guys want? On me.”

“Chicken burrito. And a Baja Blast,” Peridot answers.

“You gettin’ anything, Jasper?” Amethyst pulls her wallet out of her bag and starts towards the counter.

“Get me a chalupa, I guess.” Peridot’s already tugging her towards a booth and they slide into the same bench. Jasper’s hyperaware of how their thighs are touching and she stares at their legs like they’re the most interesting things in the world. Peridot has pulled out her phone and doesn’t really seem to notice.

She’s starting to get nervous. She’s never been this physical with Peridot before and she’s really soft and warm and, shit, does Jasper actually _like_ Peridot? Her stomach turns at the thought—there’s no way, she’s not even her type. Besides, this whole thing started out as a stupid bet, and that would put a damper on everything. There’s no way.

“Yo,” Amethyst sits down across from them with a tray of food. Jasper twitches, startled. Amethyst gives her a look. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she answers. She takes her food from the tray and inspects it. She normally wouldn’t eat this shit, but it was free and she’s high, so she just lets it go. It’s fine once in a while.

“So, Peridot, how’s Jasper treatin’ you during crew? She’s not being too bossy, is she?” Amethyst says loudly between mouthfuls of her food. 

“Bossy?” Peridot scoffs. “She does whatever I say. It’s great, ’specially since she’s so tall.”

“I’m literally right here, you guys,” Jasper interjects. Amethyst waves her hand at her dismissively.

“Peri, did you know that Jasper’s nineteen?” Amethyst asks.

Peridot stops mid-chew. “What? Nineteen?”

“I couldn’t read too well in the second grade,” Jasper grumbles. “And thanks, Amethyst, for broadcasting that fact to the world.”

“Anything for you, baby,” she responds, leaning forward on the table and giving Jasper an award-winning smile. Peridot is giggling incessantly behind her burrito and Jasper’s kind of annoyed.  She grunts and takes a sip of Peridot’s drink.

“Hey! That’s mine!” Peridot snatches it back from her and Jasper shoves her shoulder against Peridot’s.

“You guys are just too cute,” Amethyst coos. Jasper rolls her eyes and Peridot shrinks into the booth. “Betcha can’t wait till this is you, Jasper.” Amethyst licks her burrito seductively (okay, it’s a burrito, so it’s not that seductive, but still) and mimics eating it out, groaning loudly the whole time. Jasper kicks her as hard as she can under the table.

“Jesus! You’re disgusting, stop that.” Jasper can feel her face burning and turns to see how Peridot’s faring—Jasper has years of practice of being humiliated by Amethyst, but Peridot doesn’t.

Peridot looks like she almost wants to laugh but she’s not sure about it, but she looks more grossed out than embarrassed.

“That’s not what oral’s actually like, is it?” She stage-whispers.

Amethyst starts literally shaking with laughter and Jasper tries to hold it back, but it bubbles up from behind her hand and she starts laughing too. Peridot looks horrified. “What? What did I say?”  

“Holy shit,” Amethyst gasps. “You’re seriously a virgin, aren’t you?” Peridot’s cheeks redden and she scowls.

“Well, what do you expect? The only single people I even know are Lars and Lapis, and they’re both seriously grody.”

“ _Jasper’s_ single,” Amethyst points out. “Also, for the record, I think Lapis is pretty cute.”

“I’ve known Jasper for, like, a month,” Peridot mumbles. “Also, _for the record_ , I’m pretty sure Lapis is, like, a cokehead or something.”

Amethyst sucks her teeth. “That ain’t shit. I’ve seen worse.”

“You’re bluffing,” Jasper says forcefully.

“Didn’t ask you,” Amethyst shoots back. Her phone buzzes on the table and she glances at it and frowns.

“Pearl?” Amethyst sighs and nods.

“She worries too much. I should head out.”

“I’ll drop you off, just tell me where you live,” Peridot says. They gather up their stuff and pile back into Peridot’s car. It’s a short ride to Amethyst’s, and she thanks Peridot and they watch her walk into her building before pulling away.

“That was fun,” Jasper says after a few minutes. “We should hang out outside of crew more often.”

“Yeah.” It’s dark, but Jasper can see a ghost of a smile on Peridot’s face. “I had a good time. You guys are _way_ more entertaining than Ruby and Sapphire.”

“Oh God, you hang out with them?”

“Mostly, yeah.” Jasper pulls a face. “They’re pretty great separately, but they’re all over each other when they’re together. The two of them are the power couple of the century, I swear.”

Jasper grins at that. She leans back in the passenger seat and follows the way the streetlamps light up and dim in Peridot’s dark hair. Time passes in a wobbly sort of way and she’s not sure how long it takes to get to her house, but Peridot has put the car into park and is looking at her expectantly.

“Are you still _that_ high?” Peridot smiles, but not in a mocking way. “You’ve been staring at me for ten minutes straight.”

“Sorry.” Jasper can hear her own voice in her ears and it’s growly and raspy and low. It’s kind of weird but she kind of likes it. “I’m just exhausted.”

“It’s okay.” Peridot’s voice is the opposite of hers—small and high and sounds almost tinny. Does it always sound like that? “I’ll see you tomorrow, I guess.”

“Yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She gets out of the car and shuffles into the house. The second she’s through the door of her bedroom she flops down her bed, bone-tired and confused as hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dont smoke and drive, kids


	5. The Oldest Established

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Crew’s over and I’m going home. Hopefully next time I see you all, I’ll be too smashed to remember this ever happened.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all for the kudos and comments and messages on tumblr!!!! i really appreciate it, youre all amazing <3 
> 
> the song that lapis picks is drunk in love
> 
> TW for underaged drinking

Jasper had never spoken to Lapis before, nor had she really ever planned on it based on the shit Peridot and Ruby had told her. She was kind of skeptical of their stories—the girl was tiny, only a few inches taller than Ruby and about as thin as Pearl. Plus she dyed her hair blue, which just seemed too fun and quirky for the mysterious siren-turned-druggie that had been described to her.

But sometimes things don’t always go as planned, and sometimes people end up stuck in broken elevators with people that they avoided speaking to.

“It’s been ten minutes,” Jasper growls from her corner of the elevator. “Ruby _still_ hasn’t picked up her phone?” Lapis sighs heavily and widens her eyes in irritation.

“ _No_ , Jasper, she has not picked up her phone,” she replies. “Why don’t _you_ try calling Peridot?”

“I already told you, my phone’s dead!”

“Why can’t I call Pearl then?” She shrieks.

“Lapis, listen,” Jasper says cautiously. “Pearl will literally kill us if we call her during rehearsal.”

“Jasper, I gotta get out of here,” she whines. “It’s Halloween for fuck’s sake, and I have to get my costume ready for the party tonight.” She stops and looks at Jasper warily.

“What.”

“You’re not going to that, are you? I’ve spent enough time with you today.” Jasper furrows her brows.

“What party are you talking about?”

“Sapphire’s Halloween party,” she answers. “Her parents are never home and she lives in this _massive_ house. I know you were invited. I saw your name on the Facebook event.”

“I don’t read my Facebook that often.”

“Can you even read?” Lapis spits. Jasper’s off the floor and Lapis’ tiny wrist is in her hand before she even realizes what she’s doing. Lapis hand slams into her chest and they’re both screaming profanities at each other when Jasper hears a _ding_ in the distance and the elevator doors slide open.

“Okay, seriously?” Peridot’s voice says from behind her. Her hand is on Jasper’s bicep and she tugs her away from Lapis. Jasper quickly brushes her off and strides out of the elevator.

“I’m good. I’m fine.”

“Yeah, alright,” Peridot says skeptically, raising both eyebrows.

“Honestly, Lapis,” Jasper hears Ruby say from inside the elevator. She’s helping up Lapis, who looks just as indifferent as she did when they got in the elevator in the first place. “Stop picking fights with new techies. This is why no one ever stays.”

“Whatever.” She shoves her way out of the elevator, dropping the lumber she was bringing up into Ruby’s arms. “Crew’s over and I’m going home. Hopefully next time I see you all, I’ll be too smashed to remember this ever happened.” With that she storms away from them and they watch her make the sharp turn towards the exit.

“Ridiculous,” Ruby mutters under her breath as she turns in the direction of the scene shop. “She’s fun at parties, at least. See you guys tonight!” She wanders off and Jasper and Peridot make their way to the auditorium to grab their stuff.

“Are you going?” Jasper asks.

“Yeah, but I’m not dressing up.”

“Aw, why not?” Jasper nudges Peridot and grins at her. “Dressing up is fun.”

“It’s too much effort for something that doesn’t really matter. Are you?”

“I just found out about this party, so I don’t even know what I’d go as.” Jasper shrugs on her backpack. “Why don’t you help me pick something out and then we’ll go to together?”

“As long as we can get dinner first,” Peridot says as she pulls on her hoodie. “The only thing I’ve eaten today is a bagel.”

“What, no Mountain Dew?”

“Well, that too.”

 

“See, here’s your problem,” Peridot says through a mouthful of noodles. She’s sitting cross-legged on Jasper’s bed and Jasper is standing across from her in a pile of her own clothes. “The only kind of clothing you own is tank tops.”

“Well, how else am I supposed to show off my guns?” She grins and strikes a pose, flexing her biceps. Peridot rolls her eyes. Jasper gives it up turns back around to face her closet. “Ugh, I don’t even know where I got half these clothes. Like, what even is this?”

Jasper pulls what looks like a red rag out of the back pocket of a pair of jeans she knows for a fact are too small for her.

“Is that a bandana?” Peridot asks. Jasper lets it unfurl and, seeing the pattern, nods.

“Dude, if you have a blue button-down and a pair of leggings you could go as Rosie the Riveter.”

“Yes, Peridot!” Jasper exclaims. “You’re amazing.”

“Yeah, I know,” she says smugly. Jasper roots through her closet a little more and finds one of those denim button-downs towards the back. She turns around and shows it to Peridot.

“I haven’t worn it in a few years, but I think this’ll work.”

“So try it on.”

Jasper pulls her tank top over her head and tosses it to the floor and starts tugging on one of the sleeves when she notices that Peridot’s mouth is slightly open. Jasper raises her eyebrows and smirks.

“Like what you see?” She puts her hands on her hips, framing her abs, shirt hanging off of her wrist. Peridot snaps her eyes up from her stomach and looks her in the eyes. She’s visibly flustered and Jasper can see red prickling high on her cheekbones.

“Fuck you,” she grumbles. “I just didn’t know girls could get their abs to look like that, that’s all.”

“Whatever, Peridot,” Jasper says as she puts the rest of the shirt on. “Anyway, I think this fits, and I have leggings in my drawer.” She stops in front of the mirror and frowns. “I dunno how I would do my hair, though.”

“I could try,” Peridot shrugs. “I do Sapphire’s hair sometimes. She says I’m good at it.”

They spend over an hour in the bathroom trying to finagle Jasper’s thick hair into the correct look. They watch a bunch of Youtube videos and Peridot keeps getting hairspray in Jasper’s eyes, so they settle for a bun and curl her bangs back into the bandana. She spends _way_ too long putting on make-up, to the point where Peridot starts prodding her to leave.

By the time they finally get there it’s past ten. Sapphire lives in a secluded part of town and there aren’t many houses near hers. It’s pretty big, just like Lapis said, and Jasper can hear the bass from their parking spot across the street.

Ruby answers the door. She’s wearing overalls and a big red hat, and she’s sporting a drawn-on mustache.

“Why are you Mario.” Peridot deadpans. Ruby sighs dramatically.

“Because Sapphire wanted us to be Mario and Peach, that’s why,” she shouts over the music. “At least I’m dressed up, Peridot!” Ruby turns to Jasper and smiles. “You look great!”

Jasper sees Sapphire bounce up to the door, big pink flouncy dress and all. She hugs Ruby from behind and rests her chin on her shoulder.

“I’m so glad you guys are here!” She’s grinning from ear to ear and her cheeks are flushed a pretty pink. “We _have_ to do tech crew shots, come in! I’ll go get Pearl and Lapis!” With that, she disappears into the crowd and Ruby beckons them inside.

The wall of heat and humidity hits Jasper like a wave. She looks over and sees that Peridot has taken off her glasses and is furiously scrubbing the fog off on her t-shirt. They trail after Ruby and shove through the mass of bodies until they reach the bar. Lapis is standing behind it, pouring what looks suspiciously like a bottle of tequila into five shot glasses. She’s wearing a Playboy bunny costume and Jasper’s kind of jealous—Lapis is probably _way_ cooler than she is right now.

“Heeeeey, guys,” she smiles and leans forward on the bar. “Happy Halloween. Having fun?”

“We just got here,” Peridot answers.

“ _Peridot_ ,” Lapis reaches forward and grabs Peridot’s hand. “Do you wanna smoke?”

“Uh, maybe later,” she says as she tries to extract her fingers from Lapis’.

“She’s already wasted anyway,” Ruby adds. Lapis giggles and rolls her head to towards Ruby. “I don’t really need her puking on Sapphire’s parents’ carpet again.”

“That was one time!” Lapis yells.

“Yeah, and it sucked,” Sapphire interjects as she arrives with Pearl. She looks pretty nervous but she’s clearly drunk, pupils blown so wide Jasper can barely see the blue. Also she’s wearing a suit.

“What’s up with the…” Jasper looks her up and down. “Formalwear?”

“I’m Horatio Caine!” She yells, taking sunglasses out of her pocket and putting them on. “From CSI: Miami! Why does no one know who I am?”

“Probably because no one watches CSI: Miami anymore, Pearl,” Jasper retorts. Pearl opens her mouth, probably to shoot back some snotty remark, but Lapis grabs her by the waist and pulls her to the front of the bar where the shot glasses are sitting.

“Pearl, chill out. Have some tequila,” she says. Sapphire has gone behind the bar and pulls out some salt and a plate of limes from one of the shelves underneath. “You ever done shots of tequila before?” Pearl shakes her head.

“So here’s what you do,” Sapphire says. “Lick your wrist and I’m gonna put some salt on it. Then lick the salt off, take the shot, and suck the lime.”

“Why do you have to do all that?”

“I don’t know,” she says as she sprinkles some salt on Ruby. “You just do.”

“The salt makes you salivate, and the lime’s bitterness alleviates the rawness from the shot,” Peridot answers.

“ _Smartass_ ,” Jasper coughs into her hand. Peridot makes a face at her and Lapis giggles, leaning heavily on Pearl.

“Alright, ladies,” Sapphire says. “We’ve all got salt, take a lime and your shot. On three.” She raises her glass and the others follow in suit. “One, two, three!”

The tequila fucking burns. Jasper’s throat feels like it’s been scalded and she brings the lime to her mouth immediately after she swallows. She looks over at Pearl, who’s pushed her sunglasses up into her hair and kind of looks like she’s gonna cry.

“Yeah, Pearl!” Lapis says, going in for a high five but stumbles backwards a bit instead.

“That was horrible,” Pearl croaks. “I need to go sit down. Ugh.”  She wanders off and sits on an empty couch in the other room with Sapphire’s help. There’s some other people sitting on the floor in front of the couch playing some party game. As they follow her in, Jasper notices that Peridot’s standing next to her with a sour look on her face.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” she says hoarsely. “Just…tequila. Shit really gets to me.”

Before Jasper can open her mouth to agree, she’s interrupted by Lapis’ abrupt scream of “Amethyst!” Jasper watches her throw her arms around Amethyst, who looks vaguely uncomfortable and very perplexed.

“We never hang out, but we should!” Lapis yells into her ear.

“Sure, anytime,” Amethyst agrees, still looking confused.

“Wow, I like your shirt!” Lapis continues, tugging at her t-shirt. “And don’t you have really long hair usually?”

“It’s tucked into the beanie,” Amethyst replies.

“What’re you dressed up as, anyway?”

“Here, I’ll show you,” she smirks. She pulls herself from Lapis’ grip and makes her way over to Jasper—or Peridot, rather. She grabs Peridot so that they’re standing next to each other and waits.

Beanie, flannel, glasses, t-shirt with an obscure reference on it…

“You’re dressed as Peridot,” Jasper says matter-of-factly.

Peridot’s mouth drops open and Lapis starts howling, grabbing Jasper for support.

“Amethyst! Are you serious?” Peridot cries. “What are you even _doing_ here? This is a drama club party!”

“I came with Pearl,” she answers.

“Hey,” says a voice from the floor. It’s Lars, who’s got an inflatable donut around his waist. “You either play the game with us or you stop standing in the middle of the circle. Your choice.”

Jasper groans internally. Party games were fun when she was, like, fourteen, but she prefers actually dancing at parties now. She’s about to turn to Peridot to ask if she wants to go somewhere else but Lapis grabs them by the shoulders and shoves them down with an exclamation of “We’ll play!”

“We’re just playing drink or dare,” Buck says from across the circle, monotonous as always. “It’s kind of boring, honestly. No one wants to do the dares.”

“Maybe you should start giving better dares,” Jasper says, grabbing a beer for her and Peridot from the center of the circle.

“Well, we _did_ dare Lars to give someone a lap dance, but he refuses to do it,” Jenny says, glaring daggers at Lars. “I thought that was a pret-ty good dare myself.”

“Yeah, plus he could’ve done it to me,” Sour Cream adds. “That would’ve been rad.”

“Ugh!” Lars wrinkles his nose. “Gross! I am so not doing that.”

“H-hey, Lapis,” Jamie pipes up nervously, pulling at the ruff on his costume a little bit. “I heard you’re really good at those, why don’t you do the dare?”

“Hm,” Lapis closes her eyes and lets her head loll to the side a little bit. “Fine. But only if I get to pick the song.” Jamie’s face lights up. “And the person,” she adds. Jasper’s not sure she’s ever seen a smile melt off someone’s face faster and Peridot and her share a look and snicker.

Lapis stands up and goes the speaker. The song changes to some Beyoncé song Jasper can’t remember the name of and then she turns around and goes to the couch, leaning heavily on the armrest.

“Sapphire, move,” she demands. “I’m doing it to Pearl.”

Pearl’s eyes go huge and Jasper watches her hands clench into fists on the couch.

“Why me?” She says, voice kind of shrill.

“Because I think you’re funny,” Lapis answers as she climbs on the couch, legs spread apart to straddle Pearl’s lap. “Is that okay?”

“I-I guess, I just, uh…” She trails off as Lapis shoves her suit jacket down her shoulders and grinds her hips down on Pearl’s.

Jasper can’t look away. Not only does she think Pearl’s going to have an aneurysm, Lapis actually _is_ really good at giving lap dances. She peers around and sees that everyone else is just as transfixed as she is.

Lapis keeps rolling her hips, some smooth and some staccato thrusts. She’d undone the top buttons of Pearl’s shirt and is running her hands from her chest all the way up into her hair, ruffling it.  Pearl’s face is firetruck red and her eyes are flitting up and down Lapis’ body, not sure where she’s supposed to be looking.

Lapis leans her face into the crook of Pearl’s neck and Jasper can actually see Lapis’ tongue dart out. Her fingers are undoing a few more buttons and she runs her hands all the way down her chest, over her bra and around her waist.

“Dude,” Amethyst whispers harshly, not taking her eyes off Lapis. “I think Pearl’s gonna come.”

“This is kind of escalating,” Peridot says. “Maybe someone should…stop her?”

Jasper watches Lapis’ hand press against Pearl’s crotch and her eyes go _huge_ , hands flying up to Lapis’ wrists. Ruby and Sapphire stand up in tandem and drag her off the couch.

“Good job, Lapis!” Ruby shouts sarcastically. Lapis stumbles and leans heavily on Ruby, grinning and flushed.

“That was sooo fun!” She drags Ruby towards the door to the kitchen while Ruby sends distress signals to Sapphire with her eyes. Sapphire grabs Lapis’ free arm and kind of pulls her off Ruby. “Pearl, we should do that again, but I have to pee super bad.” Ruby and Sapphire lead her out of the room.

Most of the group had gone back to laughing and talking pretty fast, but Pearl’s still sitting on the couch, shirt wide open and a bruise blossoming on her neck.

“Hey, Pearl,” Amethyst says as she gets up to sit next to her. “You might want to consider putting your clothes back on.” That seems to snap her back into reality and she buttons her shirt up with lightning speed.

“Um,” she says, clearly out of breath. “I gotta go.” She gets up and leaves the room faster than Jasper’s ever seen a person that drunk walk.

“Shit. She’s upset.” Amethyst stands up. “I’m gonna go talk to her.” She follows her, leaving Jasper and Peridot with a group of underclassmen who look like they’re about to play spin-the-bottle.

“Wanna get out of here?” Jasper mutters.  

“Let’s see what else they have to drink,” Peridot answers. She glares at her empty can of Bud Light. “Something that’s not shitty beer.”

They root through Sapphire’s bar for a few minutes before making themselves rums and Cokes. Jasper puts in too much rum and they grimace after every sip.

Peridot leads Jasper through the maze of the house and down a seemingly random staircase. They make their way to the basement, which is packed with people from wall to wall and the strobe lights make everything look like it’s in slow motion. Jasper and Peridot dance for what feels like hours—if jumping up and down while being shoved around can be considered dancing. They down their drinks and pour themselves some more, failing to get the right ratio again. It’s gross and there’s no ice and Jasper’s forearms are covered with other people’s spilled drinks, but she’s having more fun than she’s had in a while. Peridot’s a lively drunk, smiling and winding her arms around Jasper’s neck.

“Hey,” Peridot shouts towards the tail end of their third mixed drink. “Can we go get some air?” Jasper nods and she uses her size to shove their way towards the exit. They head upstairs and out onto a deserted deck.

It’s cold as fuck outside and it feels really good against her skin. Jasper watches Peridot finish off her drink and shakily clutch the wooden railing. Jasper grasps her arm lightly, steadying her.

“Are you okay?” She asks. Peridot grabs Jasper’s shoulders and pulls her in so that they’re bodies are almost flush.

“I’m fine,” she breaths, voice quiet. Jasper swears she can hear Peridot’s heart pounding in her chest as she leans up, closing the gap between them.

Peridot’s lips are soft and warm and she tastes like shitty booze. Her callused fingers are lightly pressing on her neck and Jasper puts her hands on Peridot’s waist, pulling her closer.

The kiss is slow and kind of dizzying. Jasper lightly bites Peridot’s bottom lip and she gasps and makes a small noise. She inhales sharply and then pulls away faster than Jasper can process.

“Uh, what—“ Jasper’s scrambling and Peridot’s pulling away even more, taking a few steps back. Her face is red and she’s looking up at Jasper with panic in her eyes.

“I, uh, I’m sorry,” she says. “I’m really drunk. I, um, I’m gonna go check on Lapis. I’ll see you around.”

With that, she turns and hurries inside, leaving Jasper out in the cold, drunk, confused, and dismayed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	6. I'll Know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot’s avoiding her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is brought to you by 2 states, 3 cities, 2 boroughs, 3 subway lines and metronorth railways. i hope youre happy u thirsty people  
> thanks to my lovely beta tumblr user opalthyst!

Peridot’s avoiding her.

Jasper had texted her the next morning asking if she had as big a headache as she did. She didn’t respond, so she texted her again asking if she was okay the day after that. She went jogging for, like, three hours on Sunday trying to shake off the apprehension that was eating at her. She couldn’t even see if Peridot had read her texts because of _course_ she had an Android. Of course she did.

Dragging herself out of bed on Monday morning is harder than usual and her smoothie doesn’t taste like anything. Amethyst eyes her warily when she gets in the car and Pearl’s in the back pretending too hard to be asleep.

“So what’s your story?” Amethyst asks. It’s sarcastic, but Jasper thinks she can hear a hint of actual concern behind it.

“Peridot kissed me,” she grumbles into her cup. Amethyst’s eyebrows shoot up.

“That seems like a good thing,” she responds. “Why do you sound like your dog died?”

“She freaked out, man. She pretty much ran away and I couldn’t find her anywhere after that, plus she’s been ignoring my texts!”

“Well, sounds like I’m gonna win the bet,” Amethyst sings. Jasper growls and cracks her knuckles, glaring at Amethyst. “Whoa, calm down. I was just kidding.”

Jasper groans, sliding down in her seat. “I just don’t know what I did wrong! Like, was I too aggressive? I was trying _not_ to be aggressive and…” She trails off, eyes widening. “Amethyst.”

“That’s me.”

“What if she’s panicking because she thinks she’s straight?”

“Y’know, Jasper, I really don’t think that’s it,” Amethyst says smugly.

“And how do you know that?” Jasper snaps.

“Because one time I asked her what her type was and she basically described Sapphire.”

Jasper moans. Sapphire’s soft and cute and little, and Jasper…isn’t.

“Okay, well, Peridot’s not my type either, but I still—” She cuts herself off before she can admit it out loud. Amethyst gives her a quizzical look as she turns into the student parking lot.

“But you still what?”

“I’d still sleep with her.”

Amethyst snorts. “Yeah, alright.”

Amethyst is shit at parking. She always leaves too much room on the driver’s side and too little on the passenger’s. Pearl can just slide over to the other side to get out, but it takes Jasper a good minute to squeeze between the two cars.

“Do you even have a type?” Amethyst stands on her toes to set her iced coffee on the car roof. “I thought you just slept with anything with legs.”

“Fuck you,” Jasper snaps. The sideview mirror clunks against her hip and she grunts. “I usually like girls who are taller than Peridot. And skinnier.” She finally makes her way out of the parking space and exhales in relief. “Red hair’s nice, too.”

“What, you mean like Lucky Charms over here?” Amethyst scoffs, jutting her thumb at Pearl. Pearl scowls and crosses her arms across her chest.

“I’m going to class,” she huffs, glaring pointedly at Jasper before walking off. Jasper rolls her eyes.

“Don’t mind her, she’s been in a bad mood all weekend,” Amethyst says as she swings her backpack over her shoulder. “So what do you think you’re gonna do?”

“I guess I’ll just have to talk to her in person.”

“I have chem today, I could do it for you.”

“Please don’t,” Jasper deadpans.

“But I’m super smooth. See?” Amethyst opens the door for Jasper and bows deeply as she walks into the school.

“Just as I thought chivalry was dead,” Jasper grumbles. They shove through the morning rush to Jasper’s locker. Well, Amethyst keeps most of her stuff in there, but it’s technically Jasper’s.

Amethyst pulls a textbook from one of the shelves and holds it in front of them, shielding their faces from the rest of the hall. “Dude, she’s right over there,” she whispers harshly. “Go talk to her.”

Peridot and Sapphire are standing at a locker a down the hall and seem to be pretty deep in conversation about something. Peridot’s frantically twisting one of her rings and Sapphire lightly puts her hand on Peridot’s wrist, stopping her.

“They look like they’re talking about something serious, though,” Jasper mutters.

“They’re probably talking about you, Jasper,” Amethyst responds. “Come on, grow a pair, wouldja?”

“Ugh, _fine_ ,” Jasper slams the door of the locker closed with a bang. Amethyst crosses her arms and Jasper can feel her eyes on her back as she walks towards Peridot.

Peridot makes eye contact and says something to Sapphire out of the side of her mouth. Sapphire brushes her bangs back and sees Jasper just as she approaches them.

“Jasper! Hey!” She lets go of Peridot immediately, clasping her hands in front of her instead. “Sorry, can’t stick around, gotta go to class, bye!” She rushes off, leaving Peridot and Jasper alone along the wall of lockers.

“Peridot, are you okay?” Jasper figures it’s easier to cut to the chase—not that she’s one to tip toe around things in the first place. “You’ve been ignoring me all weekend. Things don’t have to be weird, you know—”

“Can we talk about this later?” Peridot’s voice is small and she’s giving Jasper a look that she can’t quite read. “It’s just. It’s really early, and I’m not…” She rubs at her face, knocking her glasses a little askew.

“I have to pick up some gels during crew today, but I’ll be there around five. Okay?”

“Yeah. Of course.”

Peridot nods kind of curtly and disappears down the hall, quickly swallowed by the crowd.

Jasper feels like she’s been punched in the gut. It’s barely about the bet anymore—she doesn’t know what her feelings for Peridot are, but she likes hanging out with her. Her dry humor and weird little quirks are refreshing and Jasper’s decided that she doesn’t really want to lose that. Even if it means losing the bet and a little bit of her pride.

 

Jasper’s day only gets weirder after that. Amethyst was nowhere to be seen after her conversation with Peridot and she finally catches up with her during lunch period.

“I left my coffee on my car,” she yells over the din of the cafeteria. Jasper studies her closely until Amethyst finally breaks. “Alright, fine! I couldn’t watch that train wreck, so I left.” She takes a bite of her burrito and grimaces. “For the record, I actually did forget my coffee.”

Lars passes her in the hall, like, three times (which is three times more than he usually does) and he leers at her every time, making a more lewd gesture each time. By number three she’s sick of it and shoves him up against a locker. She’s already pissed off and she does it harder than she means to. His shoulder makes a sick clunking sound against the metal.

“What’s your problem?” She’s up in his face and he refuses to break eye contact, pissing her off even more.

“I don’t got one, what’s yours?” He’s practically spitting at her and Jasper’s clenching her fists so hard she can feel her nails starting to break skin.

“Listen kid, I got at least sixty pounds on you, but if you look at me funny again, I won’t—”

“Stanislavski!” Jasper backs off immediately. She knows that voice too well.

“Mahaswaren.”

“That’s Mr. Mahaswaren to you,” he snaps. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Nothin’, mister. Me and Lars are old friends.” She shoots a look at Lars. “Right, Lars?”

“Uh, sure!” He practically squeaks. “Listen, Jasper, I gotta go. But tell your _girrrrlfriend_ I said hey!” He waggles his fingers and darts away.

Her girlfriend? Well, maybe people have mistaken her and Amethyst as a couple, but Lars doesn’t even know Amethyst.

Unless he’s talking about Peridot.

He’s talking about Peridot.

“Well, Miss Stanislavski,” Mahaswaren snaps her out of her reverie. “I’m glad that wasn’t what it looked like. But I’m keeping my eye on you. Now get to class.”

 

Just to top it all off, the only people who bother show up to crew are her and Pearl.

Jasper’s legs are cramping from crouching and the smell of the backpaint is seriously starting to get to her.

“Pearl, where is everyone?”

“Ruby’s sick. Lapis doesn’t come if Ruby’s absent. Peridot’s running errands.” Pearl’s answer is short and she doesn’t take her eyes off the wood she’s painting.

“Well, where’s the cast?”

“Greg’s out of town. No rehearsal.”

Jasper scrunches up her nose. “Who’s Greg?”

“Rose’s husband. The director of the show you’ve been working on for the past six weeks.”

“Yeesh.” Jasper rolls her eyes. “You’re snottier than usual. What’s up your butt?”

“Nothing’s _up_ my _butt_ ,” Pearl retorts. She stands, stretches, and pours more paint into her cup. “I’m fine.”

“You sure?”

“I’m sure.” She sits down and glances at Jasper’s paint job. “You’re painting in X’s, right?”

“’Course I am, princess.” She slaps on a huge X and smiles at Pearl. “So did ya have fun at the party?”

Pearl’s back goes all stiff and she stops painting. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Well, why not?” Jasper knows she’s pushing it, but she’s actually kind of curious. “Sure looked like you were having fun.”

“Because I’m embarrassed, Jasper, okay?” Pearl practically shouts at her.

“What? Why?” Jasper scoots closer to Pearl. “You didn’t even do anything that embarrassing. That was all Lapis.”

“I could’ve—stopped her, or maybe tried to look like I wasn’t enjoying myself so much.” She drops her paintbrush and it clatters onto the floor. Jasper’s stunned—she’s seen Pearl flustered and annoyed, but she’s never seen the girl genuinely upset before.

“It was just a lap dance, Pearl,” Jasper says, trying to keep her voice soft. “People are supposed to like those. That’s the point.”

“Jasper, I know you don’t care if people know you’re gay, but I do.”

Jasper’s stomach drops like a stone. “Shit, Pearl,” she mutters, placing her paintbrush down. “I didn’t know that’s how you felt.”

“Wouldn’t expect you to.” Her voice is muffled by her drawn-up knee.

“I mean…” Jasper’s grasping at straws. She’s not really the comforting type, especially not with Pearl. “You know there’s nothing wrong with it, right? I mean, Amethyst likes girls, too.”

“You think I can’t hear you two?” Pearl scoffs. “It’s not about that. I just—” She sighs, running her hand through her hair. “I’m a mess! I’m anxious all the time and I don’t know why. I don’t know if I’m a good stage manager or not—if I’m not strict enough no one will listen to me, but I want people to like me! And, ugh, I can’t stop thinking about everything that _could_ go wrong, and it makes me feel sick. Everything just stresses me out so much and I _tried_ to make myself like boys, I really did. I can’t have this much wrong with me, I just wanna be normal—”

“Pearl!” Jasper grabs Pearl by the shoulder, forcing her eyes into focus. “You need to slow down and breath, okay?”

Pearl lets out a shaky breath, letting her eyes drift down to the floor. She runs her fingers across the end of one of the dry paintbrushes a couple of times as she steadies herself.

“I didn’t mean to startle you,” Jasper says, trying to keep her voice low. “But I was kinda losing you there.”

“Shit.” Pearl sits up straight. “Jasper, I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to—I should, um…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jasper assures her. “It’s fine. You’re fine.”

“Okay.”

“Look, I’m not gonna pretend I really understand what you’re going through, but I want you to know that you have a support system. Amethyst loves you and the whole crew cares about you. Including myself.” Pearl presses her thin lips together and nods. “So you can come to any of us if you need to.”

“Alright. Thanks.”

They kind of sit there in silence for a few minutes before Pearl picks up her brush and starts painting again, muttering something about only having an hour left to finish this wall.

Neither of them say anything until they’re both at the sink washing brushes and cups. It’s really a pain, and it takes longer than Jasper had expected the first time she did it.

“There’s nothing wrong with you.”

Pearl stops scrubbing. “What?”

“You said there was something wrong with you.” Jasper keeps her eyes on the brush she’s working on. “There’s not. You should know.”

Pearl finally smiles.

 

Pearl’s already left by the time Peridot finally shows up. Jasper helps her carry in a couple sheets of gels in silence. She can tell Peridot’s trying to ignore the elephant in the room, and Jasper lets her. There’s no point in trying to talk when they’re on opposite ends of the auditorium.

They head out to Peridot’s car without saying a word. Jasper’s stomach is starting to tie itself in knots as she slides into the passenger seat. Peridot doesn’t even bother starting the car.

“You wanted to talk?” Her eyes are on the dashboard, the wheel, anything that isn’t Jasper.

“Are you _mad_ at me?” Jasper’s incredulous. She’d expected a couple different reactions, but anger was not one of them.

“No!” Her voice cracks as she finally turns to look at Jasper. “It’s just that I-I really like you, and…” She shrugs. “You don’t feel the same.”

“You don’t know that.”

Peridot’s eyes widen.

“What?”

“You can’t know that unless you ask.”

“Okay, fine.” Peridot’s gripping the steering wheel so tight that her knuckles are losing color. “Do you like me.”

“Yes, I do. Go on a date with me.” It’s matter-of-fact, and maybe a little harsher than Jasper had meant for it to come out, but it gets her point across.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah.”

“But we’ve known each other for months.”

“Sure, as friends,” Jasper says. “But you’re gonna keep acting weird if we don’t. Right?”

“I’m not acting weird!” Peridot exclaims.

“Well now you’re not!” Jasper reaches over and gently pries Peridot’s fingers off the wheel. “’Cuz now it’s not as awkward.”

“You’re infuriating.” Even while slinging insults, she’s twining her fingers through Jasper’s.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Jasper smirks. Peridot sighs, but she can see her trying to fight off a smile.

“And now I’m assuming you want a ride home?”

“That’d be great, babe.”

Peridot snorts. “Don’t call me that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> points if you can tell me the huge theatre reference in this chapter that is NOT guys and dolls


	7. Bushel and a Peck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You wanna kiss that nerd!” Amethyst snickers and flops back onto the bed. “Where are you takin’ her, anyway?”
> 
> “We’re going to see a movie and then get dinner.”
> 
> Amethyst snorts. “You’re so boring.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter kicked my butt im too romo to live but too aro to die   
> thanks tumblr user opalthyst for bein my beta!!

“You shouldn’t be nervous.”

“I know.”

“You’re being dumb.”

“I _know_ that, Amethyst.”

“You’re takin’ this bet kinda far, Jas.” Amethyst squints at her from under Jasper’s sheets. “You don’t actually like her, do you?”

Jasper tugs off a third shirt in a row. This one won’t work either. “It’s complicated.”

“You _do_ like her!” Amethyst sits up, throwing Jasper’s discarded clothing and a couple pillows on the floor in the process. “I fucking knew it.”

“She’s my friend, Amethyst. I don’t know.”

“You wanna kiss that nerd!” Amethyst snickers and flops back onto the bed. “Where are you takin’ her, anyway?”

“We’re going to see a movie and then get dinner.”

Amethyst snorts. “You’re so boring.”

“What else are we supposed to do? This town sucks and you know it,” Jasper grumbles. She tugs on a new shirt and buttons it up carefully.

“Save your emo crap for someone who cares.”

“Ugh.” Jasper ruffles her hair and studies her face in the mirror. “Should I wear make-up?”

“Sorry to break it to ya, but she already knows you’re ugly.”

“Shut up. You’re so rude.” Jasper watches Amethyst’s reflection stick her tongue out as she draws a black line on her eyelid.

“You’ll be great, Jasper.”

“Alright, I get it, you can stop fucking with me now.” Annoyance pricks in her stomach.

“I’m not fucking with you, I was trying to be supportive.” Amethyst sits up. “Seriously. Have fun. Don’t be an idiot.”

Jasper stands up straight and turns around to face her friend. “Thanks, Amethyst. You’re not so bad to have around sometimes.”

Amethyst lets her hair fall over her face. “Yeah. Likewise.”

 

Jasper borrows Amethyst’s car, insisting that since she was the one who asked Peridot out, she should be the one to drive. It took Jasper _hours_ to clean it out that afternoon, and she was honestly considering making Amethyst pay her. Her body was still sore from Saturday morning derby practice, and the car was a fucking disaster to say the least.

“Nice air freshener,” is the first thing Peridot says when she gets in.

“Yeah. This isn’t my car,” Jasper answers wearily. “I think Pearl got it for Amethyst’s birthday or something.”

“I dunno,” Peridot says as she clicks her seatbelt into place. “Cupcake-shaped things seem very you. Do you have a secret feminine side or something?”

“Duh. I even have make-up on, see?” Jasper bats eyelashes at Peridot and she smiles.

“It looks pretty.” Peridot’s sort of slouched into her hoodie and her eyes are shifted away from Jasper, but she’s still got a ghost of a smile on her face. “Or, you do. You look pretty.”

Jasper feels herself smile involuntarily. “Thanks.” Peridot gives a muffled affirmative. “So what movie was it that you wanted to see again?”

“Oh, the new Insidious movie. I texted you about it, remember?”

“Oh, yeah!” Jasper chirps. “The new Insidious movie!”

 

Jasper can't watch horror movies.

Not that she _can’t_ watch them—she's physically capable of it—but they freak her the fuck out. She always falls for the stupid jumpscares and psyches herself out over the movie later when she's alone. Amethyst gave up trying to make her watch them a long time ago, and Jasper thought that was that. It's not like she hadn't read the text message, it was just that she looked at the time instead of the movie.

She _thought_ that they stopped releasing horror movies after Halloween. But the fact that she’s currently sitting in a dark movie theatre clutching the armrest like her life depends on it as rotting faces flash onscreen indicates that this was not the case.

And Peridot’s fucking _loving_ it. Every time Jasper bites back a scream, Peridot gets this shit-eating grin on her face. Jasper’s pretty sure she laughs out loud at one point, but she's not sure if it was because of the movie or because Jasper grabbed her arm so hard that she thinks she left marks.

It takes every ounce of Jasper’s willpower to not sprint out of the theater the second the credits roll. She stands up and stretches nonchalantly.

“So, did ya like it?” She asks as she pulls her jacket on.

“It was alright.”

Jasper freezes. “It was…alright?”

“Yeah,” Peridot shrugs, leading them out of the theater. “I thought it would be scarier.”

“ _Scarier?_ ” Jasper’s voice is starting to hit its higher register. They exit onto the street and she uses the opportunity to clear her throat. “Uh, yeah, totally. And those effects when they did the hypnosis? Pretty lame.”

“I dunno.” Peridot shoves her hands into her pockets, shielding them from the cold. “I thought that part was pretty cool. Where are we going, by the way?”

“Chinese,” Jasper answers dejectedly. “It's on this block. That's okay with you, right?”

“Why wouldn't it be?”

“You're not sick of it?” Peridot just blinks at her, her face illuminated by neon signs and harsh streetlamps.

“Well, because you're…” Jasper regrets the words before they even come out of her mouth. “Chinese, right?”

Peridot looks more confused than anything. “I’m Filipino,” she says. “How do you get those mixed up?”

Jasper can feel her face heating up as they step into the restaurant.

“Um. I.”

“Two, please,” Peridot says to the host before turning back to Jasper. “I don’t even think I look Chinese. Do I?”

“Well, I, uh, maybe not, isn’t your last name something Chinese, though?”

They sit down at the table and Peridot just stares at her. “It’s Cortese.”

“What?”

“My last name is Cortese.”

Jasper presses her lips together. “Wow.”

“That’s a Spanish name, if you didn’t get that.”

“No, no, I got it,” Jasper mumbles. She stares down her menu and wills the temperature of the room to go down.

“What are you gonna get?” Peridot asks, flipping her own menu around.

“Fried rice looks good. You?”

Peridot purses her lips and studies the menu. “Lo mein, I think.”

They order and the food comes out pretty fast. Jasper’s tried and failed to make conversation (more like she’s thought up different topics they _could_ talk about, but she’s too worked up to actually say anything).

“So.” Jasper says finally, fiddles with her chopsticks. “Other than theatre stuff, you like…video games, right?”

“Mm-hm,” Peridot answers through a mouthful of lo mein.

“Like, which ones? Pokemon and shit?”

“Yeah, Pokemon’s good,” she says, swallowing. “I’ve been playing that since I was a little kid. I really like RPG games too.”

“Like what?” Jasper leans forward. She figures that even if she doesn’t know anything about what Peridot’s talking about, she may as well learn.

“I’ve been playing Dragon Age a lot,” Peridot answers. “I really like League too…” She stops and looks at Jasper. “Why are you asking me this?”

“We don’t talk about much outside of the show, so…” Jasper trails off.

“I mean, it’s really nerdy. I know you’re not interested in it,” Peridot points out as she wraps some noodles around her chopsticks.

“Yeah, but _you_ are,” she insists. “Plus you’re cute when you talk about things you like.”

“Who even are you?” Peridot demands, despite the color rushing to her face.

“Well, I’m—“ She’s interrupted by the sound of a glass shattering in the kitchen and she flinches, hard.

“Are…you okay?” Peridot says, her eyebrows drawn together in confusion and concern.

“I’m fine,” Jasper answers breathlessly. “Still kinda freaked out from the movie.”

“Wait, that movie actually scared you?”

“To be honest, Peridot, I was shitting myself the whole time.”

Peridot bursts out laughing. “Are you _serious_?”

“Not all of us can handle horror movies!”

“But you’re so—and when you grabbed my—” She leans back into her chair and shoves her glasses up, still laughing. “Oh my God! I can’t wait to tell everyone.”

“No.” Jasper’s eyes widen. “You can’t tell anyone.”

“And why not?” Peridot’s still chuckling and swiping at her eyes.

“Because I have a reputation to uphold!” Jasper exclaims. “I’m tough! It’s my brand.”

“Your _brand_?” Peridot snickers. “We just had a conversation about video games and now you’re telling me you can’t handle scary movies.” Peridot raises her eyebrows and takes a sip of water. “I don’t think you’re as tough as you think you are.”

A waiter comes over and takes their plates while Peridot smirks into her hand. Jasper sticks her tongue out at her and she giggles.

They pay and leave, both of them kind of hurrying to the lot because of the cold. Jasper blasts the heat immediately and they sit in the parking lot while the car warms up, teeth chattering and little clouds of their own breath appearing in front of them.

“I’m sorry I insulted your toughness,” Peridot says, breaking the near-silence.

“It’s okay. I’m sorry I assumed you were Chinese when you’re not.”

“It’s fine. You didn’t know.”

Jasper pulls out of the lot and Peridot fiddles with the radio for a few minutes. She leaves it on a pop station before leaning into the seat, head tilted towards Jasper.

“This was…good. This was a good idea.” Jasper can barely hear her over the low music. She’s used to this by now—when Peridot gets nervous, she gets quiet.

“I had fun too,” Jasper answers, trying to match her volume. “I mean, did it feel like a date?”

“I’ve never been on one before, but I…I guess so.” Peridot’s playing with Jasper’s fingers on the center console, but she’s looking Jasper in the eye. “Maybe we could go on another. If you want.”

“Yeah.” Jasper closes her fingers around Peridot’s. “We should.”

Peridot lives downtown, so the ride is short. She doesn’t make any moves to get out when Jasper puts the car in park, just sits up without releasing Jasper’s hand. She’s staring at Jasper so intently that Jasper’s starting to worry there’s something wrong.

“Can I kiss you?” She blurts.

“Yes,” Jasper breaths, undoing her seatbelt so she can lean in.

This kiss is slower than the last one. There’s no tongue, no teeth, no sticky alcohol-soaked hands. Jasper’s free hand is in Peridot’s short hair and she can feel Peridot’s fingers tracing her jawline.

Peridot pulls away before the kiss can deepen. Her fingers are still on Jasper’s face and their noses are kind of touching and Jasper’s pretty sure she wants to stay like this forever.

“I should go in,” Peridot whispers.

“Okay,” Jasper whispers back. Peridot gives her a little smile and climbs out.

Jasper stays and watches to make sure Peridot’s in the house before driving away.


	8. Amethyst's Lament

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amethyst met Jasper when she was five.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took longer than usual, it was opening week at my festival and im Tired  
> thanks tumblr user opalthyst for bein my beta!!

Amethyst met Jasper when she was five. Her memory is terrible, but she knows the story well enough—some kid was making fun of Pearl during recess so she leapt to her defense. Jasper, being bigger and stronger than the rest of the kids as well as self-instated playground patrol, broke up the brawl and they’ve been inseparable ever since.

They were rough-and-tumble from the start, most of their early photos starring the two of them covered in mud and bruises. They did practically everything together, from homework to recess. Amethyst even joined Jasper’s softball team for a while before it became clear that sports like those were _so_ not her thing.

Pearl was never happy about their friendship. Her dad had pulled her out of her old school to move across town to live with Amethyst’s mom, his newest girlfriend in a chain of many. Amethyst was the only other kid who gave her the time of day, and Pearl did _not_ like to share.

Regardless, the three of them became a trio until middle school when Pearl made friends with the other girls in her ballet class. Pearl hung out with her dance friends more and more, which only made Amethyst and Jasper grow even closer. They told each other _everything_ —crushes, worries, secrets. Jasper was the first person to be given the blow-by-blow details of the first time a boy kissed Amethyst outside the seventh grade end-of-the-year dance, and Amethyst was the first person Jasper told about how she felt about girls.

Once they started high school, Amethyst started dating. She went through a lot of boyfriends, but none of them held her attention for very long. She liked them fine, but the second they started getting all mushy and romantic she got the creepy-crawlies. At first she thought she was like Pearl, who kissed boys for show and then came home and cried to Amethyst about how she wished she was kissing girls instead, but that didn’t feel right either. Jasper tried to be supportive, but she eventually ended up confronting her about the turnover rate. It was their first real fight.

“I’m just worried about you, Amethyst!” Jasper had shouted. As usual, they were in Jasper’s bedroom since her mom was rarely ever home. Even though the room was practically as much Amethyst’s as it was Jasper’s, she still felt out of her element. “What was wrong with the last guy? Or the one before that? Are you—are you being safe about it?”

“I’m not _pregnant_ , Jasper,” Amethyst scoffed. “You know I-I’ve never had sex with any of them. They just start making me uncomfortable after a while.”

Jasper grabbed her hand hard enough for it to hurt. “Are they making you do things you don’t want to? ‘Cuz I swear to God, I—”

“No!” Amethyst interrupted. “They just get all romantic, tellin’ me they like me and that I’m their girl and it just. I like being their friend and I like kissing them and shit, but I can’t deal with that.”

“Oh.” Jasper loosened her grip on Amethyst and visibly relaxed. Amethyst felt like a huge weight had been lifted from her chest, but her stomach was still roiling with nerves and apprehension.

“Is that weird?” Amethyst studied her feet, toenails freshly painted purple from earlier in the night.

“I guess not,” Jasper answered. “I mean, I like romance so I guess I don’t really understand it, but…” She shrugged. “I don’t really get why you like boys so much in the first place, so.”

“Want me to tell you?” Amethyst waggled her eyebrows suggestively, tackling Jasper onto the bed as Jasper laughed and tried (and failed) to cover Amethyst’s mouth with her hands.

 

They weren’t each other’s firsts, not by a long shot. Jasper had just turned eighteen and had game, especially with the derby girls. Amethyst didn’t hit it off too well with them in that regard, but she was content with hooking up with the random guys who came to post-game parties.

The first time they finally did it was kind of embarrassing, at least in Amethyst’s opinion. They were sore as fuck from practice and kind of drunk and Jasper had muttered into Amethyst’s ear that she wanted to show her something new she’d learned. She curled her fingers inside of Amethyst in a way no boy had _ever_ done and she practically came on the spot.

“Do you usually come that fast?” Jasper teased, voice low and raspy from the booze.

“No,” Amethyst breathed. “Do you usually finger people without kissing them first?”

It was never an exclusive thing and it was definitely not romantic. They just fooled around sometimes—it was fun and harmless, and it worked for both of them.

Sort of.

 

“Jasper, do it.”

“I’m not doing that, Amethyst.”

“Pleeeeease.” Amethyst puts on her whiniest voice, hoping Jasper will just get annoyed with her and do what she asked.

“No.” Jasper climbs off of her, sitting up against the headboard and crossing her arms over her chest. She’s not wearing a shirt so she just ends up squashing her boobs together.

Amethyst sits up too, resting her chin on Jasper’s shoulder and leaning in to suck at her neck. Jasper makes a noise low in her throat but doesn’t move. “It’ll be fun,” she mumbles against her.

“Putting my fingers in your butt does not sound fun.”

“Well not when you put it _that_ way,” Amethyst pouts, drawing away from Jasper. “Plus you ruined the mood.”

“I think _you’re_ the one who ruined the mood.” Jasper rolls her eyes. “Tell ya what, I’ll do whatever you want as long as it doesn’t involving putting my fingers near your butt.”

“What about your—”

“Or my mouth.”

Amethyst considers for a moment. “Can I sit on your face?”

“Sure.” Jasper hand is skimming her waist before she even gets her answer out and Amethyst’s heart jumps. She slides down to lay on her back and Amethyst swings one of her legs over Jasper’s torso, straddling her. Jasper’s hands are on Amethyst’s ass in an instant, kneading and pulling her forward. She scoots closer and groans when Jasper bites at the inside of her thigh. She rolls her hips, gasping when Jasper’s tongue hits her clit.

It doesn’t take long for Amethyst’s orgasm to wash over her, leaving her gasping and shuddering on top of Jasper. She can feel Jasper’s arm moving—at some point she’d probably snaked her own hand between her legs. Amethyst feels another jolt of arousal and shoves herself backwards, knocking Jasper’s hand out of the way and replacing it with her own. Jasper bucks her hips forward, moaning.

Jasper comes pretty fast after that. They lie in a sweaty pile for a couple of minutes, both of them still catching their breath. Amethyst is the one to break the silence.

“Are you hungry?”

“Is it even dinner time?” Jasper mutters into Amethyst’s hair.

“I dunno, check your phone.”

Jasper grimaces and stretches, grabbing her phone from the bedside table.

“Shit.”

Amethyst looks up at her. “What?”

“Peridot texted me.” She sits up, raking her fingers through her hair and squinting at her phone.

“So what?”

“So,” Jasper locks her phone and throws it down next to her. “I feel guilty.”

“Guilty?” Amethyst screws her face up in confusion. “About what?”

“Oh, I dunno, that the girl I’m dating is texting me while I have sex with someone else?”

“The girl you’re _dating_?” Amethyst splutters, pushing herself upright. “You guys went on _one_ date. You need to tell me what’s going on.”

“You’re gonna make fun of me.” Jasper’s voice is uncharacteristically soft and her eyes are downcast and guarded.

“What the hell? Since when do you care if I make fun of you?”

“Since I figured out that I actually like her, Amethyst!” She explodes, raising her voice and uncrossing her arms. “And I’ve never _felt_ like this about a girl before, and it’s scaring the shit out of me, and this started off as a _joke!_ And, oh my God, what’s gonna happen when she find out about the bet? She’s gonna be furious!”

“So…just don’t tell her?” Amethyst shrugs.

“My first real relationship can’t be based off a huge lie.” Jasper draws her knees up and rests her head on them. “Shit, Amethyst, what should I do?”

Amethyst shrugs and avoids Jasper’s eyes.

“Amethyst.” Jasper gets up suddenly and grabs her underwear from the floor, shimmying it on. “We have to stop.”

Amethyst stares at her as she tugs her sports bra over her head. Her mouth feels dry and dread sits low in her stomach. “Stop what?”

“Stop sleeping together.” She walks around the bed and pulls a pair of basketball shorts from her dresser. “And put some clothes on, didn’t you say you were hungry?”

Amethyst is silent for a few seconds too long and Jasper stops. She leans on the bed with her hands on either side of Amethyst. She knows she doesn’t mean it, but the action makes Amethyst feels like she’s been backed into a corner. “Is that okay?”

Amethyst swallows the lump in her throat. “Uh-huh.”

Jasper might not be the most intuitive when it comes to other people’s feelings, but she knows Amethyst. Amethyst can feel her eyes on her face, looking for signs of…what? Tears? An impending outburst?  

“Amethyst.” Amethyst squirms back at Jasper’s intensity. “Did we fuck up? You don’t…like me, do you?”

“You know I don’t,” Amethyst says immediately. “I just don’t wanna lose my best friend.”

“What?” Jasper’s eyes widen and she stands up straight. “I’ve had girlfriends before and you never acted like this. Where is this coming from?”

“Yeah, but they were never serious! And, I mean…” She tugs the sheet up around her, suddenly self-conscious. “You seem to really like Peridot. Which is fine. I’m being jealous and dumb.”

Jasper sits down next to Amethyst and puts her arm around her bare shoulders, pulling her in.

“You’re not being dumb. I get it. And you’re not being replaced, you’ll still be my best friend when—if this happens. Okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Now stop bein’ a jackass and let’s go get some pizza.” She yanks the blanket off Amethyst and she scrambles after it, knocking Jasper and a lamp or two to the floor.

 


	9. Guys and Dolls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby twists around to look at her, eyes wide. “You don’t know?”
> 
> “Know what?”
> 
> “Peridot goes ham at things like this.”
> 
> “Ruby, what does that even mean?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FUCK im sorry this took so long, i work really late also i marathoned oitnb so....  
> HAPPY BIRTHDAY VICKY this is half ur present  
> thank you + congrats to my beta opalthyst for finding her first typo in this chapter, my perfect streak is ruined

Jasper _loves_ going to drama club meetings. At first she thought it would be a bunch of nerds discussing Shakespeare or something, but it’s actually closer to watching a trashy soap opera. She doesn’t know the full story behind how this year’s drama club board came to be, but she’s gathered that it’s something like this:

Jamie is the president. He’s also the strongest actor in the club and usually gets the lead—he even plays Sky Masterson in the fall musical. Pearl’s the vice president and has been on the stage management team of every show in the past two and a half years. According to Pearl, Jamie’s a self-absorbed drama queen and according to Jamie, Pearl’s a controlling bitch who hasn’t unclenched once in her whole life.

In short, they fucking hate each other.

Sapphire, Ruby, and Sadie are on the board too, but Jasper can never remember what exactly their jobs are. Since Sapphire plays Sarah, Sky’s love interest, Jamie always tries to awkwardly flirt with her during meetings while Ruby sends him death glares. Sapphire is either oblivious of this happening or, more likely, she’s just ignoring him for his own good. Sadie’s an underclassman and usually sits silently through the meetings and takes a couple notes.

The whole spiel is seriously entertaining. The meetings have gotten better recently now that she can let her hand rest on Peridot’s thigh and watch her try not to blush.

“So tech week is one week away,” Sapphire says as Jasper’s hand creeps a little higher and Peridot flushes a little darker. “And everyone’s a little tense! So I think we should all we should all do something together before things start getting really hectic.”

“That’s a good idea, Sapphire,” Pearl says, scribbling something in her notebook.

“We have money in the budget left for one more field trip,” Sadie adds.

“So, Ruby and I were talking—” Jamie cuts her off with a groan and Sapphire ignores him. “And I think laser tag would be a good activity to do. Plus Fun Land has a group discount. Does that sound okay to everyone?”

There’s affirmative murmuring from the rest of the club.

“Super! So the people interested can just give me their names and emails after the meeting.”

“Thanks, Sapphire!” Jamie beams. “Is there anything else on the agenda?”

“Yes, Jamie,” Pearl glares. “Remember? We talked about this earlier today?” Jamie stares at her. “I wrote it in your notes.”

Jamie glances down at his notepad. “Oh. Tech week.”

“Yeah. Tech week,” Pearl hisses through clenched teeth. “So for those of you who are new, here’s how it’s going to work: Monday and Tuesday is for tech. It’ll be a lot of stopping and starting and our wonderful lighting designer, Peridot, shining bright lights in your faces. Wednesday and Thursday we add costumes and do full runs of the show, and Friday we open. We’re starting at three every day so that means you need to be dressed and ready _before_ that.” She stops and glances to her right. “That means you, _Mr. Masterson_.” Jamie doesn’t respond, just grimaces and rolls his eyes. Pearl sighs and continues.

“As you can see on the production schedules I handed out, there’s no end time for these rehearsals. They might go till 10 or later, so make sure you get some sleep and bring money for dinner. Does anyone have any questions?”

Her question is met with silence.

“Alright! If that’s it, meeting’s over!” Jamie exclaims, jumping off the edge of the stage and gathering his things.

“And don’t forget to give me your names for laser tag!” Sapphire calls as a line starts to form in front of her.

 

“We’re gonna cream those nerds, Jasper,” Ruby says as she pulls the bulky laser tag vest over her head. “We’re the most athletic ones in the club, and the other team is a bunch of wimps. Although…” She grimaces.

“Although what?” Jasper asks.

“They do have Peridot.” Jasper bats Ruby’s hands away from the clasp on the back of her vest, buckling it for her.

“What are you talking about? Peridot’s as much a wimp as the rest of them.”

Ruby twists around to look at her, eyes wide. “You don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“Peridot goes ham at things like this.”

“Ruby, what does that even mean?”

Ruby turns around fully, looking Jasper dead in the eyes. “Listen, I know she’s your girlfriend or whatever, but steer clear of her during the game. She’s crazy competitive.” Ruby shivers. “I still have scars from the end-of-summer ultimate frisbee game.”

“No fucking way,” Jasper blanches. “Lemme see.”

“Well, they’re not on my skin. They’re—” She taps her head. “In here.”

“Ugh.” She grabs Ruby’s arm and tugs her towards the locker room exit. “Stop trying to fuck with me, I know you’re full of shit.”

“I ain’t lying! I’m serious!”

They’re interrupted by Pearl slamming the door open. Her skinny frame is swimming in her vest and the static electricity is making her hair stick straight up—not to mention that she looks like she hasn’t slept in a week.

“Lookin’ good, baby,” Jasper sneers. Ruby snickers behind her.

“I’m too tired to deal with you right now,” Pearl grumbles. “Are you guys playing or not? We’re about to start.”

“Why are you here if you’re so tired?” Ruby asks as she shakes her arm from Jasper’s grip.

“I’m trying to set a good example, that’s why. Let’s go already.”

She leads them out into a dark hallway and they stand with their team.

“Look, Jasper,” Ruby whispers as she sidles up next to Lapis and grabs her around her waist. “We don’t need Peridot, we got the best one.”

“Thanks,” Lapis says dryly.

“I can hear you, y’know,” Peridot says from the other side of the narrow hall. “Besides, me and Sapphire are gonna kick your butts. Right, Sapphire?”

“Oh, yeah,” Sapphire smiles, looping her arm through Peridot’s. “We’re the dream team.”

“Is everyone here?” Mr. Smiley (Jasper would pay money to find out that guy’s real name) gets up from his chair near the entrance of the game room.

“Yeah, I got the stragglers,” Pearl says with a grin. Ruby mocks her under her breath, nasally and high.

“Thanks, Pearl. A quick overview of the rules: you get shot three times, you’re out. Yes, even if it’s your own teammate.  Your gun will be deactivated for thirty seconds after you’ve been shot. This is a non-contact sport, so no roughhousing. If no one has any questions about the gear, then you can all grab a gun and go have fun!”

There’s a frenzy of activity to get the guns and enter the dark game room. The teams circle up once Smiley shuts the door behind them.

“Jasper,” Ruby says as she pulls their teammates into a huddle. “You’re team captain.”

“Why me?” Jasper snorts.

“Because you’re the only one here who can play sports,” Lapis interjects.

“’Scuse you, I’m gonna be on the varsity softball team this year,” Ruby refutes.

“That’s just because they needed to fill their lesbian quota.”

“You better fucking watch yourself, Lazuli—”

“You two,” Jasper snaps. “Shut the fuck up. Here’s the game plan: stay low, stay outta sight. We’re the red team, so _don’t shoot_ if you see another red vest.  Do you idiots think you can handle that?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Lapis says with a wink. Jasper ignores her.

“One more thing,” Ruby says. “Watch out for Peridot. She—”

Before Ruby can even finish her sentence, her vest vibrates, then goes dark. She spins around and Peridot’s standing there, hips cocked and snickering.

“I what?”

“That was dirty, you motherfucker!” Peridot sprints away laughing and Ruby takes off after her. The rest of Jasper’s team scatters, leaving her totally defenseless. She runs to finds something to stand behind and presses her back flat against the mat.

“’Sup?” The voice from the ground makes her jump and she swings her gun around her body to aim.

“Lars,” she breaths, loosening her grip around the weapon when she sees him lounging on the floor with both hands on his phone and his gun lying on the floor next to him. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Playing Candy Crush.”

“In the middle of a game of laser tag?” Jasper says, incredulous.

“I’m bored,” he responds without taking his eyes of the screen.

“Why’d you even come then?”

“Sadie talked me into it.”

“Well, are you gonna shoot me?” Jasper puts her hands on her hips. “I’m wide open.”

“Nah,” he glances up at her. “But Sapphire will.”

“What?” Jasper snaps her head up in time to watch Sapphire pull the trigger. Jasper’s vest deactivates. “You little shit! You set me up!”

Sapphire giggles and turns to run. Jasper scrambles after her, her long, blonde hair serving as a target in the dark maze.

She disappears around a sharp corner the second Jasper’s vest lights back up. Jasper skids a little but manages to round the corner fine, only to be met with the end of Peridot’s gun. Jasper raises hers immediately.

“Seems we’ve got ourselves a Mexican stand-off,” Jasper growls. She can hear running and shriek-laughing, but they’re alone, in the back corner of the game room.

“That was cheesy,” Peridot states evenly. Her eyes are analyzing Jasper’s position, trying to figure out how she can get her laser around Jasper’s raised arms.

“You set me up.”

“Maybe.”

“Is this a set-up, too?”

“I’ll never tell.”

Peridot’s got this stupid grin on her face and Jasper storms forward, knocking Peridot’s gun to the side and shoving her up against the back wall.

“This is a non-contact sport. Didn’t you hear the man?” Peridot’s obviously trying to keep her cool but the question comes out sort of choked and her hips automatically align themselves with Jasper’s thigh. “What’s got you all wound up?”

“Competition turns me on,” Jasper mutters, reaching around to rest her hand dangerously close to Peridot’s ass and pulling her closer. “Why do you think I play so many sports?”

Peridot whimpers as Jasper leans down and nips at her neck. “Planting Lars was your idea, wasn’t it?”

“Um, can we _not_ talk about Lars right now?” Jasper actually bites down this time. “Haaaa-h. Fuck. Uh.”

Jasper lifts her face into Peridot’s hair and mutters, “So what’s your strategy?”

“I, uh—” Jasper lets her hand drift down to Peridot’s ass and squeezes it. “Mmmm. We have a bunch of plants and your team’s probably getting whooped right no-o-w—” Jasper pulls Peridot’s hips to grind against her thigh. “God, fuck, will you just kiss me already?”

Jasper’s on her in a second. Peridot’s all tongue and teeth and her fingers are buried in Jasper’s hair. Her hips are rolling against Jasper and, wow, she has a surprisingly great ass and—

“When you guys are finished humping, do you think you could rejoin the game?” Jasper pushes off Peridot and grapples for her gun on instinct, suddenly remembering that she has a _job to do_. That job being finding Sapphire and taking revenge.

“Lapis, what the hell?” Peridot squeaks.

“Did I interrupt something?” Lapis deadpans. “Oh, by the way.” She levels her gun and fires at Peridot point-blank. Peridot whips around to look at Jasper.

“This was your idea! _You_ set _me_ up!”

“Please,” Lapis snorts. “She’s not smart enough for that. That was all me.” She swaggers off, leaving one stunned and the other seething.

 

“You should’ve seen their fucking _faces_ , Pearl!” Lapis cackles from the backseat. “I’m not sure I’ve _ever_ seen Peridot more pissed off, I thought she was gonna kill me. The way she charged after me, Jesus—” She cuts herself off with more high-pitched laughter.

“Why did we agree to drive her home again?” Jasper sulks in the passenger seat as Pearl giggles into her hand.

“Oh, come on.” Lapis leans forward and circles her arms around Jasper’s neck from behind. “I’m hilarious. You guys love having me around.”

“No, you’re _rude_ ,” Jasper says as she wrestles herself out of Lapis’ grip.

“How are things with Peridot, anyways?” Lapis asks.

“I’m curious too,” Pearl says. “I’ve known Peridot for, like, three or four years now and I’ve never seen her in such a good mood. I also don’t think she’s dated anyone.”

“Good,” Jasper responds. “Really good. I really like her.”

“You do?” Pearl takes her eyes off the road for a moment to look at Jasper. “So you’re going to win. Or have you won yet?”

“Win what?” Lapis questions.

“Nothing!” Jasper says quickly. “Pearl’s just too much of a prude to say the word sex, that’s all!”

Lapis gives her a quizzical look, then looks at Pearl. “Pearl? Is that true?”

“Oh, definitely! You know me!” Jasper resists the urge to bury her face in her hands. Pearl is an atrocious liar and they all know it. “Lapis, your house is at the next right, correct?”

“Yeah, it’s that one right there.” Pearl pulls over and stops the car. Lapis is still looking at them weird as she undoes her seatbelt. Her eyebrows are scrunched together and Jasper can practically see the cogs turning behind her eyes. “Well, thanks for the ride. I’ll see you guys later.”

Jasper doesn’t breath until Pearl pulls away from the house.

“Pearl, seriously—”

“I know. I know. I’ll be more careful.”

“Okay.” Jasper relaxes back into her seat. “By the way, Amethyst texted me to get pizza. You want in?”

“Yes, I’ll drive you there.”

“Thanks, babe,” Jasper grins and wipes the sweat off her palms before responding to Amethyst.


	10. Havanah

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tech starts in one week and Peridot is panicking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first of all, im SO SORRY this took so long, second of all, sorry this is kind of short, third of all enjoy

Tech starts in one week and Peridot is panicking.

Well, not panicking in a Pearl sense—huge eyes, rapid breathing, and increasingly high-pitched yelling—but Jasper can tell that something’s off. She refuses to work together with Jasper now, instead shoving gel frames into her hands, instructing her as to which unit they should be in, and disappearing into the booth to do God-knows-what. Ruby and Lapis are still painting parts of the set and they keep getting in her way. Jasper’s stepped in so many cans of paint that she’s pretty sure all of her shoes are going to be rainbow by the end of this.

Jasper’s on the top-most rung of the ladder adjusting one of the units when she feels herself _tipping_. Her stomach flips violently and she grasps at the unit to steady herself. She glances down and Lapis is standing suspiciously close to her ladder with three paint cans in her arms.

“Jesus Christ, Lapis, you almost fucking killed me!” Jasper shouts.

“I can’t see shit over these cans!” She yells back. “Maybe you shouldn’t be working while _we’re_ trying to paint!”

“Your paint job’s not gonna mean shit if no one can see it, dumbass,” Jasper shoots as she climbs down the ladder. “Can you help me move this to stage right?”

“Clearly not,” she spits. She readjusts the cans and huffs, marching backstage. Ruby sets down her brush and stands up.

“I’ll help you move it,” she grumbles. “Do you see what I have to deal with?”

They lift the ladder together and bring it to the next unit Jasper has to work on.

“Ruby,” Jasper crosses over to Ruby before she can go back to her painting. “Do you know what’s up with Peridot?”

“Oh, she always gets like this right before a show,” she says. “She’s probably just really stressed out. Plus her board operator is kinda flaky.”

“Who’s the board operator?”

“Ronaldo.”

“Of course it is.”

“Hey,” Ruby throws her hands up. “He’s a weirdo, but the guy knows his way around a console.”

She walks back to her wall and cans of paint. Jasper turns around and sees Peridot heading towards the stage. She approaches the edge of leans on it.

“Hey, Jasper,” Peridot calls. “When you’re done with that pile, I’m gonna need you to focus.”

“I’m totally focused!” Jasper says. “I’ve been working for hours—”

“That’s not what I meant,” she interrupts. “I need you to focus the lights. Like, I literally need you to stand under lights while me and Ronaldo fuck with them.”

“Oh. Sure.”

“He just showed up, so he’s gonna set up the board and we’re gonna try and get through some of the first electric today.” She rubs her face and Jasper can hear her making a low groaning sound when she sits at the edge of the stage next to her.

“Are you okay, Peridot?” Jasper asks, trying to make her voice soft.

“We’re so behind,” she answers, words muffled by her hands. “The cast starts onstage _tomorrow_ , and I need another coffee.”

“Wait, I thought tech didn’t start until next week?”

“It doesn’t,” Peridot says, readjusting her glasses and glancing up at Jasper. “Actors are needy and want _staging rehearsals_. Like, come on! It’s the same stage you’ve all been performing on for four years, why do you need another one?” She grunts and pushes herself off the apron. “You finish that, I’m gonna go see if Ronaldo needs another pair of hands.”

“Sure thing.” Jasper starts getting to her feet. “And Peridot? Don’t kill yourself over this, we’ll finish in time. I mean, the show must go on, right?”

Peridot gives her a crooked smile. “Yeah, that’s what they say.”

 

Jasper shouldn’t have let Peridot pick the Pandora station, but it’s too late now. They’ve been listening to Daft Punk radio for the past three hours.

“Can you help me?” Peridot says from her spot on the floor. She’s surrounded by sheets of gels, and a cutting board and X-ACTO knife are sitting in front of her. “We gotta finish dropping color by Wednesday at the latest, then I have to program the board.”  Jasper flicks her lighter a few times before lighting her joint.

“Yeah, when I’m done smoking this.” Jasper exhales and she watches the smoke dissipate above her. Peridot clambers onto the bed and plucks the joint from Jasper’s fingers, taking a hit.

“You’re not finishing this by yourself,” she says. She blows the smoke in Jasper’s face. “I thought we were going out.”

“And _I_ thought you had gels to cut.” Jasper puts the joint out in an ashtray on the bedside table and pulls Peridot so she’s halfway on top of her.

“Whatever. I’ll just pull an all-nighter,” Peridot grunts as she shifts fully on top of Jasper. “Again.”

She kisses her and Jasper lets her. It’s slow and relaxed—they’re totally alone, finally, with no fear of cops knocking on car windows or classmates rounding corners. Peridot’s t-shirt is riding up and her waist is soft and warm under Jasper’s fingers. Jasper sucks at Peridot’s bottom lip and she makes a small, high noise and presses herself closer to Jasper. Jasper’s pretty sure she could do this for _hours_. Making out is underrated.

They finally pull away to breath. Peridot’s flushed and her hair’s sticking up everywhere. She takes off her glasses and tosses them to one side of the bed.

“You okay?” Jasper’s voice is breathier than she wanted it to be.

“Uh-huh.” Peridot buries her face in the crook of Jasper’s neck and shoulder. Jasper can feel her lips pressing softly against the skin there.

“Peridot, if there’s anything that you don’t want me to be doing…” She glances down at her hand, still resting at Peridot’s bare waist. “Or anything that you _do_ want me to be doing, you can tell me.”

Peridot props her head up on her hand.

“Well,” she mumbles.

“Why are you making that face?”

“I’m not making a face.” Peridot pulls her lips out of their pout immediately and Jasper smirks. “It’s just awkward. Asking.”

“You don’t have to ask, you can just show me,” Jasper points out.

Peridot blinks. “Yeah. I’ll do that.”

She leans back in and they’re kissing again. Peridot’s fingers curl around Jasper’s wrist and she slides her hand up her torso.  Jasper cups her through her shirt and she squirms. She can feel her hardened nipple through the thick jersey material, so she slides her hand underneath. Peridot whines when Jasper pinches her. She sits up and tugs her shirt over head.

“Where have you been hiding those?” Are the first words out of Jasper’s mouth.

Peridot instinctually crosses her arms over her chest. “W-what do you mean?”

“They’re huge! What’s your bra size?” Peridot’s face is turning darker by the second and a pout is starting to form on her lips.

“I dunno, I don’t really wear bras.”

“And they just stand up on their own like that?”

“Why wouldn’t they?” She squeaks.

“Amethyst’s don’t.”

Jasper knew she said the wrong thing the second she finished saying it. Peridot’s eyes focus and her shoulders drop. “Why do you know what Amethyst’s boobs look like?”

“Because we’re best friends, Peri,” Jasper answers smoothly. “Best friends show each other their boobs, right?”

Peridot snorts and rolls off of Jasper, flopping next to her. “Can we stop for right now?”

“Did I ruin the mood?”

“Well, yes,” Peridot smirks. “But also, I mean…I’m new at this.”

“Of course we can stop.” Jasper rolls to her side and kissed Peridot’s cheek. She makes a gagging sound in response and sits up to grab her shirt from the floor. Jasper watches her as she tugs it on, runs her hands through her hair, and puts her glasses back on.

“You hungry? I think my mom left some leftovers in the fridge.” Jasper sits up and smooths the wrinkles from her jeans.

“I could eat,” she says. “But after we do, I _have_ to finish what I’m working on. Don’t distract me.”

“Yes, _sir_.” Jasper fake salutes and Peridot rolls her eyes at her and leads them out of the room.

Peridot ends up staying the night. Jasper falls asleep with the light on and the sound of ripping tape a metal frames softly clattering against one another. She wakes up sometime early in the morning, when the sun is just barely shining through her window. Peridot’s curled up against her, shirt riding halfway up her ribcage and a pair of Jasper’s boxers twisted around her thighs. Jasper blinks sleepily, rolls them both over so she’s hugging Peridot from behind, and drifts off again.


	11. If I Were A Bell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “There’s a radio for you in the dimmer room,” Pearl interrupts. “Go get it and see if Ruby needs help setting up backstage. Also, tell her to call five to places.”
> 
> “But they don’t have to be onstage for another ten minutes,” Jasper argues.
> 
> “Do you think actors know how to tell time? Go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eek i've been super busy sorry for the radio silence!!!! enjoy this xtra long chapter. thanks ellie opalthyst for bein my beta!

Ruby’s been texting Jasper tech stories to scare her all day. So far she’s heard about actors walking off the edge of the stage by accident, costumes falling apart during final dress, and Rose _actually_ losing her temper. The horror.

Her phone’s been buzzing incessantly all class, so Jasper pulls it out when the teacher has his back turned and quickly taps in her message.

            UR LYING AND I KNOW IT, ROSE IS 2 NICE

Ruby’s speech bubble pops up within seconds.

            YOU’D BE SURPRISED ;)

Jasper sighs and slips her phone between the sheets of her notebook. Pearl seems more uptight than usual, if that’s possible (although she insists it’s because of her position and that Jasper will probably be fine) and Jasper’s only seen Peridot once today, slinking out of the school store with a coffee in her hand, a Mountain Dew under her arm, and what looked like a Five Hour Energy sticking out of her pocket.  The only person who seems unfazed by all this is Sapphire.

“You’re the lead,” Jasper says, straining over the din of the cafeteria. “I don’t understand why you’re not as freaked out as everyone else.”  

“It’s just a couple of late nights,” Sapphire shrugs. “It can get stressful, no doubt—Pearl _hates_ Greg, she always thinks her way is best even though he’s the director, and it lands her in fights with Rose all the time. But _my_ most pressing issue during tech is getting quick changes right, to be honest.”

“Aw, look how self-aware our Saffy is!” Ruby exclaims. “It’s nice that actors recognize that tech works the hardest.”

“Well I didn’t say _that_.” Sapphire pokes delicately at her salad. “Acting’s exhausting. You have to open up your emotions for everyone to see, and that can be taxing.”

“Whoa, you have emotions?” Ruby’s asks, faux taken aback. Sapphire shoots a pointed glare in her direction and Amethyst snorts into her lunch.

“C’mon, guys,” Amethyst says. “Obviously, the most important part of theatre is the _audience_ , right? Who are you without your fans?”

“No, that’s not the point of the art—” Sapphire starts.

“I’m just fuckin’ with you, Sapphire,” Amethyst laughs. “You nerds need to calm down.”

Jasper gives Amethyst a good jab in the ribs for that and Amethyst grapples back, nearly knocking down Jasper and Sapphire’s lunches in the process.

 

Jasper’s not running the show, but she’s Peridot’s deck electrician, so she shows up to the auditorium at 2:45 on the dot. There are already tons of people there—actors are warming up, Ruby’s hurriedly trying to finish her paint job, and Rose and Steven seem to be handing out snacks.

“Jasper!” Steven drops his snack box and runs over.

“What’s up, bud?” Jasper leans down, giving him a high five. “It’s been a while.”

“Yeah, I usually go to my friend Connie’s after school, but I like helping Mom during tech week!” He exclaims. “Are you going up to the booth right now?”

“I guess so,” Jasper shrugs. “I should probably let Peridot know I’m here.”

“Can I get a piggy-back ride up there?” Steven puts on his most winning smile and bats his eyes. Jasper snorts.

“Sure thing, kid.” She crouches and Steven clambers onto her back. Jasper grunts—he’s heavier than she thought he’d be. She hikes up the raked house, trying to ignore Steven’s sandaled foot pressing against her kidney. She plops Steven onto the ledge of the booth before turning around to lean on it herself.

Pearl’s got her nose buried in her binder and Peridot’s repeatedly pressing a button on the lighting board and reciting numbers. Every time she does this, the stage changes colors and Pearl murmurs some form of affirmation. Lapis is sitting on the other side of Pearl playing with her phone.

“Hi, Peridot,” Jasper says.

“Cue 93. Hi, Jasper,” Peridot responds without turning around.

“What are you guys doin’?” Steven says, jumping down from the ledge and peering into Pearl’s binder, standing on his tippy-toes to see onto the table.

“We’re running through the light cues to make sure my book is correct,” Pearl explains. “And Lapis _should_ be testing the sound board, but apparently she has better things to do.”

“It’s working, Pearl, chill out.” Lapis crosses her ankles on the edge of the sound board and Pearl starts gripping her binder so hard that Jasper thinks it’s going to break.

“How do you _know_ it works if you haven’t _tested_ it, Lapis?”

Lapis tears her eyes from her phone screen and rolls her head to the side, peering up at Pearl from underneath her bangs.

“Hey, Steven,” she says, still looking straight at Pearl. “Wanna help me press some buttons?”

Steven’s face lights up. “Do I!”

Jasper lets herself into the booth while Steven futzes with the board and Lapis watches.

“You doin’ okay?” Jasper asks Peridot. The seemingly ever-present circles under her eyes look well on their way to becoming bags and the slouch of her shoulders tells Jasper that Peridot’s already exhausted.

“As okay as I can be, I guess,” Peridot mutters, almost so quietly that Jasper has to strain to hear her.

“There’s a radio for you in the dimmer room,” Pearl interrupts. “Go get it and see if Ruby needs help setting up backstage.  Also, tell her to call five to places.”

“But they don’t have to be onstage for another ten minutes,” Jasper argues.

“Do you think actors know how to tell time? Go.” Pearl waves her off and turns her attention back to her binder. Lapis gives Jasper a sympathetic look as she stalks out of the booth.

Backstage is in chaos. Ruby had dumped all of her dirty paintbrushes into the sink and has run past Jasper at least three times while she got her radio. Meanwhile, actors mill around, apparently doing their best to get in Ruby’s way. When Jasper finally emerges from the dimmer room, Ruby immediately drags her to the worktable, props scattered haphazardly across it.

“Uh, I might’ve dropped the boxes earlier,” Ruby explains quickly.  “This side of the table goes to the stage right props table and everything’s taped out according to item. Can you put them in the right places?”

“Sure,” Jasper says, picking up a small prop gun and weighing it in her hand. “Pearl says you should call five, by the way.”

“Ugh, I don’t have time for that!” Ruby gripes, juggling five or six props in her arms. “You do it! I don’t know why they hang out in the dressing rooms when they don’t even have costumes yet…”

Ruby stumbles off, leaving Jasper alone in troves of actors.  She goes around, doing her best to get the actors’ attention (it’s not hard, most of them don’t know her and she’s pretty noticeable to begin with). When she gets back from the dressing rooms, Ruby has already moved on to the stage right table. Feeling awkward, Jasper trails behind her, attempting to offer help. The chattering from her radio is really distracting, but she’s grateful it’s mostly Ronaldo and Peridot.

“Ruby, did you call five yet?” Pearl’s voice sounds higher and even more irritating through the headset, if that’s possible. Ruby fumbles with her radio before answering.

“Yeah, it’s done,” she answers.

“Can you call places? We’re starting really soon.”

“Uh, I’m gonna have Jasper do it,” Ruby responds, glaring at the pile of disorganized props. “I’m kinda busy.”

“That’s fine,” Pearl says. “Jasper, do you copy?”

“Yeah, I, uh, copy,” Jasper says. “Over.”

Laughter bursts into her ear and Jasper and Ruby wince simultaneously. Jasper hears Pearl’s voice, sounding far away and muffled, shout “Lapis! Don’t press the button if you don’t have to talk!” The laughter cuts off after some muffled noises from Lapis’ mic before Peridot starts speaking.

“You don’t have to say over!” It sounds like she’s laughing too, and Jasper’s pretty sure her face is beet-red. “Do you think we’re cops or something?”

“Well, how was I supposed to know?” Jasper tries not to shout into her mic.

“Stop with the headset chatter,” Pearl cuts in. “Look, I don’t really care about pre-show talking, but we’re about to start, so be quiet. Only talk if you’re responding to a standby or you have a question for Peridot or me. Is that clear?”

“Yes, _ma’am_ ,” Lapis answers over headset, despite the fact that she’s sitting right next to Pearl. Jasper swears she hears indignant squawking before Lapis’ mic cuts off. Ruby giggles into a prop hairbrush.

Jasper calls places and the actors scramble to the correct sides of the stage. Jasper watches the lights dim from behind some soft goods while Ruby rounds up the stragglers from the dressing rooms, and the rehearsal begins.

And it’s boring as _fuck_.

By the time dinner break hits, Jasper has found five different hiding spots backstage, finished her math homework, and has had her hair braided by three different freshmen.

Pearl and Peridot don’t even leave the booth during their break. They send Ronaldo to get them dinner and seem very intent on getting whatever it is they’re doing done. Jasper hangs around backstage and eats with a bunch of actors. All in all, she has to fix a grand total of one light, and it was one of the backstage ones. Ends up someone kicked the plug of out the socket. She manages to hitch a ride home with Jamie, who apparently lives near her, and rants about how much he hates Pearl and how much he loves Greg the whole time.

Tuesday is much of the same. Pearl is working furiously when Jasper gets in Amethyst’s car in the morning, marked-up papers sprawled across the backseat. Jasper manages to catch Peridot at lunch and she’s pretty sure Peridot actually falls asleep at one point. Backstage is just as boring as the previous day, though Jasper’s under the impression that it’s a smoother process. They don’t seem to be stalling during scenes as long, at least.

After seeing Pearl’s huge, almost haunted-looking eyes, Jasper and Sapphire cut last period on Wednesday to get some crew snacks from the convenience store. They show up to the booth at 2:30 with hummus, pretzels, energy drinks, and various cookies. Lapisdigs in immediately, wire still slung around her neck, shoulders, and wrists. Ruby buries herself in Sapphire’s arms, muttering her thank you’s repeatedly.

“Thanks so much, guys,” Pearl says with an obviously forced smile. “This process has been such a shit-show so far, this is really nice.”

“For real,” Peridot adds, mouth full of Doritos. “You guys are life-savers. I haven’t had time to shower, let alone _eat_.”

“Ew, Peridot, you haven’t showered?” Lapis sneers.

“Dude, do you think hair stands up on its own like this when it’s clean?” Peridot rakes her fingers through her hair and, lo and behold, spikes of it stand in dull, black chunks.

“Thought I smelled something rank in here,” Lapis deadpans. “You really picked a winner, Jasper.”

“I think Peridot looks _fine_ ,” Jasper insists. “Besides, I’m sure she put on deodorant this morning, and that’s the next best thing. Right, Peri?”

Peridot eyes Jasper before grinning guiltily, shoulders scrunching up to her ears. Pearl mutters “gross,” under her breath and Lapis barks out a harsh laugh.

“Jasper, I think we’re needed backstage,” Ruby says suddenly, dragging Jasper away from the booth, and Sapphire follows suit.

“Sorry you had to witness that,” Sapphire says as they duck into the wings. “Peridot acts like she doesn’t care, but she probably does. Things just get crazy for them, y’know?”

“Guys, I’m not Pearl,” Jasper responds. “Not showering for a few days isn’t gonna make me break up with her.”

“It would make me break up with Ruby,” Sapphire answers nonchalantly.

“No it wouldn’t,” Ruby interjects, reaching across Jasper’s body to grab Sapphire’s hand. “You looooove me!”

Sapphire grins, gives Ruby a quick peck on the lips, and heads off to the dressing rooms. Ruby waves her off drowsily until Jasper taps snaps her out of her reverie by approaching her with a prop bottle with a shard missing.

“Pearl to Ruby and Jasper,” Pearl says while Jasper’s fiddling with the string lights backstage and Ruby’s off doing God-knows-what. “Please call ten to places. It’s first dress, so we might be starting late today.”

“Gotcha,” Jasper answers.

“Jasper, can you get the dressing rooms? I’ll do backstage.” Even though Jasper can hear Ruby’s voice coming from near her backstage, she confirms over radio, flicking the string lights on and heading for the doors to the dressing rooms.

She knocks on the girl’s room and sticks her head in. There are girls in various states of undress, dark, period-esque dresses tossed haphazardly onto chairs and counters, and the room reeks of hairspray. Jasper grimaces and calls ten. A chorus of “thank yous” follows her as she shuts the door behind her. Hoping the boys’ room will be better, she knocks and lets herself in.

The room is in similar disarray, smells less like hairspray and more like teenage boy BO, and Lars is standing dead center in the room, facing her, and completely naked.

“Why,” is the first word out of Jasper’s mouth. Some freshmen boys in the corner of the room giggle and suddenly Jamie is flying through the air, towel in hand. There’s a loud _crack_ and Lars screams.

“Ten to places!” Jasper blurts. She doesn’t even wait for a response before slamming the door, aghast.

Jasper shakes her head and goes through the doors to backstage.  Peridot rounds the corner around the set and they nearly collide.

“Hey, I was just looking for you,” Peridot says. “Can you help me—”

“I just saw Lars’ penis,” Jasper cuts her off. Peridot’s eyebrows raise before a grin lights up her face.

“Of course it’s him!” She exclaims through bursts of laughter.

“What are you talking about?” Jasper bursts.

“It’s just this stupid tradition the boys do before first dress. The girls do something weird too, but not until opening night.” Peridot stands on her toes and leans in. “It was small, right? Tell me it was tiny.”

“Uh, gross!” Jasper backs away. “I don’t wanna think about it! He’s nasty! He’s also, like, twelve!”

“I think he’s closer to sixteen, but okay.” Peridot grabs her hand and pulls her onstage to help her with the adjustments. After a couple of minutes, Ronaldo flashes the house lights and they start the show from the top.

If Jasper ever imagined this many girls hastily stripping in front of her, it was never in _this_ situation. She’s tripped over the likes of shoes, skirts, and even a couple of clumsy freshmen. The more flustered Jasper gets, the harder Ruby laughs. She knows that Ruby’s texting Peridot _everything_ and she’ll probably never hear the end of it once this hellish week is over.

Jasper helps Peridot pack up for the night and they walk out to the empty, dark parking lot together. Peridot blasts the heat the second they get in the car, taking a few moments to warm herself up.

“Jasper, I’m glad you decided to help out with this show,” Peridot says quietly, her breath puffing in front of her in a small white cloud. “Having you there is…nice. I feel like Pearl’s a little more relaxed having an extra body backstage, too.”

“I’m glad, too,” Jasper answers. “But mostly ‘cuz you’re cute. Even though you haven’t showered in three days.” She leans over and gives Peridot a quick kiss on the cheek. Peridot laughs a little and pulls out of the lot.

“Yeah, well, I got important shit to do,” she retorts. “And I smell _fine_ , so I don’t know what Lapis is talking about. She’s probably smelling her own chlorine ass.”

Jasper snorts and peers over at Peridot. She looks tiny in her puffy winter coat and she’s kind of bouncing in her seat, even while accelerating.

“Are you seriously that cold?” Jasper asks.

“Uh, yeah, aren’t you?”

“I guess I run warm,” Jasper shrugs. “I could warm you up, if you want.”

Jasper reaches over and slings her arm over Peridot’s shoulders, pulling her in closer.

“No, stop, I’m driving!” Peridot objects, putting a hand on Jasper’s chest, but Jasper can feel her laughing. Jasper backs off but keeps her hand around Peridot’s on the center console. “Yo, if I get in a car accident, it’ll be all your fault.”

“You won’t get in one, man.” Jasper squeezes Peridot’s hand assuringly. “You’re fine.”

Peridot smiles at her, streetlights reflecting off her teeth, making them seem brighter than they usually are.

“Yeah,” she says. “I am.”

 

It’s the last day of tech.

It’s the last day of tech and Pearl is confident in her calling, the freshmen who are acting as run crew seem pretty on top of it, Peridot’s finally satisfied with how the show looks, and Sapphire isn’t sure she’s going to make a single quickchange.

Ruby’s in the dressing room trying to coax her out of her panicked state and the whole cast is onstage already and well into the first number.

“Jasper, has Sapphire come out yet?” Pearl asks over headset. Jasper peers through the backstage doors and sees the girls’ dressing room door shut firmly.

“No, she’s still in there,” Jasper replies.

“Well, I’m not holding the show for her,” she says indignantly.

“Yeah, nothing’s worse than a drama queen, right, Pearl?” Lapis adds.

“Shit, wait, they’re coming out,” Jasper whispers, ducking behind the door. She watches Sapphire shuffle towards the wings and Ruby follows in suit, looking visibly tense.

“Ruby for Pearl, Sapphire is in places.”

“Finally,” Pearl groans. “Jasper should watch from the booth tonight. I don’t want the cast getting used to having her back there.”

Jasper heads to the booth, situates herself in an extra stool and watches the show. She’s never really seen a show before, and it’s different from this angle. Seeing Peridot’s work head-on is nice, and seeing Pearl’s cues that she had previously only heard over headset actually happen is pretty cool too. Sapphire didn’t miss a single quickchange the whole time, and the cast was only one minute late to places after intermission.

Post-show is a breeze at this point. The whole crew (except for Ronaldo, who’s an anti-social creep anyway) hangs around until everyone’s done with clean-up, and circling up onstage.

“Ok, guys,” Pearl begins. Her hair is sticking straight up from the amount of times she’d nervously put her hands in it and the circles under her eyes are darker than even Peridot’s. “You’ve all been amazing this week, and our last run went really smoothly. Rose thinks we’re going to have a full house for tomorrow night, so make sure you bring your A-game! Also, remember to wear your blacks tomorrow! Now, follow me.”

The group follows Pearl to a remote, gated-off stairwell near the auditorium. To Jasper’s surprise, Pearl scales the gate and lightly jogs up the stairs, opening the door at the top.

“You guys coming?”

Ruby’s already halfway up and Peridot’s right behind her. Jasper and Lapis exchange glances before following suit.

The door leads to the roof of the school. It’s another cold night and even Jasper is shivering against her light sweater.

“So now we’re gonna do our pre-opening tradition,” Peridot jumps in. She reaches into her backpack and removes a cheap-looking bottle of booze.

Pearl holds out the shot glasses and Peridot fills them to the brim before dispersing them.

“We all drink at the same time,” Pearl explains. “On three. Ready?” The crew nods and Pearl counts down, and they throw them back similtaniously. It’s shitty liquor and it tingles slightly going down. Peridot fills her shot glass again before handing it to Pearl. She sets it in the center of the circle.

“Now we’re going to pass the squeeze. Hold hands.”  The group does.

The bitter winter cold juxtaposes the warmth of Peridot’s hand in her right and Lapis’ in her left. They pass the squeeze around the circle until it’s so fast they’re just pulsating, and Pearl finally calls break. She takes the shot glass from the center and wanders towards the edge of the roof. Jasper watches her pour out the contents over the edge and vaguely hears her say something as she does it.

Everything’s still for a moment. The moon silhouettes Pearl’s slight frame, Ruby and Lapis are sort of huddled together, and Peridot hasn’t let go of Jasper’s hand. It’s sort of romantic, in a weird, off-beat way.

And then it’s over.

“Happy opening!” Pearl twists around and goes back to the group. She pulls them in for something like a hug, their faces squashed together and bodies shielding each other from the wind. Jasper never wants it to end.

But everything has to end.

Even this.

Especially this.

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to drop a line on my main, sophelstien! my tagged/the-fic has answered asks and fanart :)))))


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